With a Flourish
by Breathlessly Wicked
Summary: When Max, only age eight, learns how much responsibility she has protecting the flock, she grows up. Watch and learn how Max became who she is. And even after they leave the School. Before and After the books. From beining to end.Learn about Ms. Leader.
1. In The Dark

_I already know, I'm biting off more than I can chew but this idea needed to be written! Duh Duh Duuuuuh! Yay._

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter One)))_

_**Death Valley, California, The School: 2003; 2:30 AM**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

It was late, really, really late, the only reason I knew that was because _they_ had turned off the light a long time ago. There weren't any windows in the room we were in, the other freaks and I, so we barley got to see what it was like outside. The cold metal of the cage bit into my back and half spread wings.

I really wasn't sure what they were called actually, but I knew they weren't normal and only me and a few other kids had them and all of the men and women in white coats had said they were wings, at first, when I had learned to talk, they had been surprised when I called them a word that the big wolf things called me. . . A dumbass? I wasn't really sure what it meant, but the big wolf thing that had been guarding the door had slapped me across the face and the white lab coat people had written something on their clip boards, now none of us even tried to talk to _them_ anymore. It was weird, now they just ignored us and hurt us, it hurt really bad and sometimes we cried when we got back to our cages, but I never did, or if I did I smiled at the others and didn't let them know I was sad. They would get even more sad if I did that.

That night was no different from the others, except for the fact that one of us had been taken away and he hadn't come back. His made up name was Iggy, he was one of us, so I looked after him too, even though he was my age, well, I really didn't know, but we were the same height when we hunched down in the cages next to each other, the boy with dark hair, Fang, wasn't asleep, but he and I didn't sleep as much as the others in the first place so I wasn't surprised.

"He's not back." I whispered, knowing _they _were listening. Fang nodded without looking at me. Usually they didn't keep us past lights out. So I knew something was wrong. . . Very, very wrong. "Do you think he's ok? If they do anything bad to him I'm gonna-"

My rant was cut short, my little eight year old head snapped to face the door as it slid open, a wolf man threw a little light colored lump into the crate to the right of mine. It was Iggy. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ig!" I whispered happily, he groaned and blinked his eyes.

"Ma- Max? Max? Where are you? Max!" He sounded worried and frantic, I shoved my skinny arm through the bars of the cage and grabbed Iggy's hand. Fang was leaning hard against the bars of the cage to my left, watching intently.

"Iggy, I'm here, what's wrong?" I whispered, Iggy spun around and faced my general direction, I waited to see his brilliant green eyes flash in the low light that leaked from the hallway, but what I saw would be imbedded into my memory forever, 'till the day I died. His once mysterious green, jade-like eyes, were pale, a kind of swimming kind of blue that I had only see in the eyes of the blind experiments , and they had been terminated soon after their blindness.

"Max, they did something to my eyes and then I couldn't _see_, Max, they didn't make me fall asleep, they said they had to know how I would react. It _hurt. _And now I can't see. Max, tell me what's happening, I'm scared." Iggy help my bony hand for dear life, and I held back with the same intensity.

"Iggy, clam down, it's ok. Ig, don't be scared, I won't ever let them touch you ever again." Little did I know how true that promise was. Fang gasped as he put two and two together and got Iggy.

"Max. . ." Fang began, I turned from Iggy who had started to cry, "Are- Are they gonna do that to us too?"

I felt disgusted at first that he didn't care about Iggy, but then I understood as he looked down nervously and he started to cry silently. I reached a hand over to his cage too and grabbed his equally skinny hand and squeezed with all of my might. That was the day I grew up.

"It's ok Fang, I won't let them touch _any _of you. Ever again, you're all safe." I whispered to both of them. They nodded simultaneously. And that was how I spent that night, holding my two best friends hands and thinking hard how I was going to keep my promise. I didn't sleep that night.

When the lights came back on, our door was immediately thrust open and a lady that usually took Fang Iggy and I at the same time walked in. Just as she was about to order the wolf man to open our cages, I called the name people called her.

"Umm. . . Yulanda?" I croaked, she spun on her heel and crouched down to face me seriously, she was one of the only ones that talked to us.

"Yes number 1?" Yulanda's voice was weird and it didn't sound like the others and yet she said the same words, it was weird. She always had her blonde hair tied in a long French braid, the chocolate colored girl, Nudge had taught me that word.

"I want to meet with the boss, _now._" Instead of laughing like she probably should have, she gave me a curious look.

"Why? We would not want to bother Dr. Bachelor if it wasn't important." She told me very seriously like I was her co-worker or something.

"I have a. . . A deal for the. . . White Coat in charge." That was the moment, both the name white coat and my leader-ship of the flock became evident, her brow furrowed and she grabbed a walkie talkie from her hip and spoke into it, backing away from my cage, both Fang and Iggy leaned hard into the bars, even though Iggy couldn't see, he still had a surprised look in his eyes.

"What are you doing Max?" Iggy murmured so Yulanda wouldn't hear. I looked at my two best. . . What was the word? The White Coats had never learned it so I wasn't sure how I knew it. . . Friend? Yes, Friends.

"I'm making good on my promise, the will never ever touch you guys again." I said firmly, they both looked angry, sad, confused but most of all, worried. A second later Yulanda came back to my cage and opened it so I could walk out. Yulanda allowed us to walk as long as we didn't try to run away.

"Number one, Dr. Batchelor said he would meet with you but only for a moment. Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked in a hushed voice so the wolf man didn't hear.

"Yeah, and tell the wolf man to leave Iggy and Fang in their cages for today. If they leave I don't cooperate, meeting or not." I said stubbornly as the wolf man eyed the two boys.

"Ok, Reg, bad, away from the cages, go back home, shoo! I don't need you today." She talked to the wolf man like he was a dog, but he scampered away anyway.

Soon, we reached one of the only wooden door in the whole place. I stepped in and Yulanda left. Inside looked like a regular office, a big desk, a name tag that I didn't know how to read, a big leather chair with a man in a white coat in it and certificates that said how awesome the doctor was.

-"So, Maximum Ride, -as your fellow experiments call you- how may I help you?" The white coat I was talking to was one of the few who talked to us as well. He was the big boss? This would be easier than I had thought.

"I have a deal for you." I looked at him seriously but he took it a step at a time and urged me to continue.

"And that is?" He asked cautiously.

"You're not allowed to touch the other wing kids anymore and I will cooperate." I said firmly, he didn't laugh either. He was looking at me surprised, not like I was a talking dog, but like I had just made a reasonable enough offer.

"Well Maximum. What would this deal in tale?" After he said the same sentence a second time with words I understood, I told him the ins and out of my plans, he looked amazed and nodded every few seconds.

A few hours and a few painful tests latter, the wolf man, Reg literally threw me back into my cage. I sighed a heavy sigh. It was almost lights out again. I had been gone all day, looking around, I saw that the others were looking the same without any cuts, gouges or broken bones, so they hadn't been tested on today. Probably for the first time in a long time.

The little white one, Angel, was sharing a cage with Nudge so that she could be looked over, usually I took care of Angel, but I doubted I would have time anymore, I had to do all of the experiments that had been scheduled on everyone in my block. I was sore all over from Fang's obstacle cores and my arm was throbbing like it had a separate heart beat from my own after all of those needles at Gazzy's weekly drug intake. Then I had to fly in some kind of wind tunnel thing with wolf men standing next to me poking me with things that made my whole body hurt. But I was used to that kind of hurt, it was my usual test that they had to do regularly.

Nudge was whispering to Gazzy across the walkway from me with Angel in her arms. Angel was skinny enough to fit through the bars. "Nudge!" I whisper yelled hoarsely. The little girl knew immediately what I wanted and shoved Angel through the bars for me to take.

I cradled the little chicken-like baby in my arms as I waited for the questions. None came. They were all acting like it was a normal day. They didn't care. They didn't care about who? Each other? No. Me. I was suddenly angry. I had just given an arm and a leg -not literally- to keep them safe and what do I get? Nothing. _Nothing! _But I kept my face emotionless as I thought this. I just watched my Angel look around curiously and then giggle up at me. As if I were her sister or mother or something. And that was one of the reasons I liked Angel better then the rest of those freaks, she appreciated what I did. And when she touched my cheek a thought that wasn't mine slid into my mind.

_Love Max!_

_**(((End Chapter)))**_

_Well, that turned out better then expected! For me anyway. I want two reviews to continue is all. And if you haven't guessed it yet, this is a love triangle kind of thing. :D Enjoy. _

_Siy Rowling?_


	2. The Fight

_Ok, I'm doing ok with the updating for this story! Whoop whoop._

_I dedicate this chapter to Randomanimallover and GODISAWESOME AND darkrystalangel for being just freakin awesome! _

_Now on with the. . . Oh you get the idea!_

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Two)))_

_**Death Valley, California, The School, 2003: Lights On Time; 4:24 AM **_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

It had been a month. A freakin' _month, _and I hadn't given up yet. I had decided I didn't care if the freaks didn't care about me anymore. If that was how they felt then _fine. _I barley talked anymore, it kind of hurt to talk. I mostly slept when I got back or took care of Angel. Fang sometimes looked like he wanted to talk but he never did. And Iggy, well Iggy, was Iggy.

The bright lights burned through my closed eyelids. I groaned as the wolf man grabbed y arm and dragged me from my cage. It was a good thing Angel had slept in Fang's cage that night because, I wasn't even able to open my eyes before the wolf man slammed the door shut behind us.

Yulanda commanded the wolf man to set me down and I stumbled next to the German women -I had also learned that she was German, wasn't I just the smartest?!- After a moment we entered the room where Yulanda measured and weighed me. She glanced at me in a quizzical sciencey way, like she was wondering how long until my body couldn't take the over time anymore.

"Today is a big day, you know Maximum?" She asked me, I looked up at her through tired eyes, she was worried, why? More testing than usual? I gave a questioning grunt. "You have not over heard from the others yet?"

"No." I replied, coughing a couple of times, she looked surprised. "What's happening today?"

"My, my, my, it's the big test day. Where we pit you up against one of your fellow experiments that is of your stature. Or. . ." She tried to put the sentence in a different way, a way that I would understand "Someone who grows as fast as you and has the same strength as you. Your equal."

No matter how Yulanda tried to explain, I was still lost, apparently, that made her question my brain development and strut off with wolf boy and me hot on her heels.

Whatever Yulanda was talking about, I knew one thing for sure, I was dead scared. But I knew, Maximum Ride, shouldn't be scared, she should be a leader, you're protecting Iggy and Fang and Angel and Nudge and even that stinky kid Gasman. Even as I thought that I began to wonder, what was I going to have to do?

I was taken back to my cage and all of my regular test were canceled, I looked around at the other freaks, they were surprised too. I could tell they all _wanted _to talk to me, but. . . They just. . . Wouldn't.

Just as I thought that, Nudge broke.

"Max, what are they _doing _to youz?" She asked in her little six year old voice, sometimes she just jabbered nothing, we all knew she liked the sound of her own voice. Sometimes it was cute, sometimes it was annoying.

"Nothing." I murmured, there was a bi of rustling in the cage next to mine and I saw Fang shoot up from his sitting position.

"_Nothing?_" He growled, I glared at him in return, how did he know they weren't doing anything to me? Fang was such a- a- a know it all sometimes! Ugh. I crossed my even bonier than before arms and glared at him. Iggy reached into my cage and pulled my shoulder back, I jerked up as he blindly tried to hug me through the bars. After weeks of them ignoring me they decide to suddenly like me again? Uh uh. I don't think so.

"Yes nothing. It's been completely ok and fine and. . . Ugh." I had run out of words for good. Fang smirked, _smirked! _How did he even learn to do that? I was getting angrier and angrier by the second.

"Max, what did you do?" Iggy asked worriedly in my ear as he finally was able to pull me back into a hug through the bars. I wanted to tell them, but I was still mad.

"Max, mad." Angel gurgled from the Gasman's cage, my head spun around and so did everyone else's, that was the first thing she had actually out together in a semi normal sentence.

And then they took me away.

_**8:45 AM, The Back Court Yard**_

A couple of wolf men shoved me in a cage. I coughed on my own spit as I saw all of the other freaks, peering out through an electric fence, it must have been out side time, we got that once a week, where everyone was dumped out side, in a electric fenced in area and given a half hour to do whatever. It was the best half hour of my life usually. But there was chains over us connected to the fence so even if me and the other freaks learned how to actually use our wings, it would be no use.

I searched for a second and then with my freak seeing, I spotted the other wing kids. They were all watching intently, especially Angel and Fang, mainly because they were the smartest and probably thought they knew what was going to happen. Even if Angel was a baby.

Then a thought that wasn't mine slipped into my mind again,

_Iggy worry to Max! _

She may have been smart but she still didn't know how to talk fully, well really, neither did us older kids.

'_Tell Iggy, I'm fine.' _

I sent back to her, hoping that she could get the message across to Ig. He was panicking because he couldn't see what was happening, he was slowly getting used to his blindness, but every day he waited for the White Coats to come and take him away to be terminated.

_Fang mad_

Huh? Fang doesn't get _mad _Fang stays quiet. And why would Fang be mad?

_Fang no happy way big boy look at Max. _

Big Boy was what Angel called the guy in charge, he had told me to call him Jeb, but I just called him White Coat. I glanced at the blonde guy and saw him looking. . . Sad? Hmmm. Probably not good.

Even if I was only eight, I had a cruel look on life in the back of my mind, well, I called it realistic, other experiments called it cruel. Either way, it was working in over time. I was going to die!

I sucked in a deep breathe and calmed slightly, ok, just look around. I did, and what I saw on the other side of the court yard made me double take. There, in a metal cage only a few hundred feet away, was another experiment, I had never met him before, but I knew what was going to happen now. And by the looks of things he knew too, he was looking scared dor his life, probably mirroring my own facial expression perfectly.

Fight to the death.

As Angel took that little tid bit from my mind she screamed and wailed in Fang's arms and started to gurgel nonsense but her message was clear as it slid into everyones mind within a one hundred mile radious.

_No Max die! No Max die! _

The scientist type people gasped as they spun around to look at their horrible creations, all of which were staring right back. Nudge and Iggy had managed to shut Angel up my cupping a hand over her mouth.

Jeb didn't look surprised whatsoever, only even more sad. What? Then the bell that indicated it was time for a big test went off and everyone feel silent, looking from me to the boy.

"Let's begin." Growled an evil wolf man who hated us. He laughed at my wide eyed powerless look as he threw me out of my cage. The same was done to the boy who looked about my age.

"Time to play."

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_All right. I need two reveiws again, I held up my end last time, HOLD UP YOURS! I know, I'm so demanding. -sigh- just having a REALLY random day. I hope GODISAWESOME and Randomallover AND darksrylangel liked this chapter, it wasn't very eventful, but it was something! I still need some feed back on what pairings you think I should have?!?!?!?!_

_Siy Rowling?_


	3. The Chip

_Oh. My. GOD. You people review like CRAZY. . . I LOVE IT! Whoop whoop! Sorry, it just had to be said. Thanks all of ya'll, I'll dedicate this chappie to everyone who bothered to review my sucky story!_

**Randomallover =** _Ok seriously, you're just awesome, you reviewed for both of my chappies and you're kinda sort of really just AWESOME, had to get that out. :D_

**darkrystalangel = **_You actually went through the trouble of checking how many reviews I had just so I'd update, not a lot of people would do that so a special LOVE YOU to you man. _

**GODISAWESOME = **_Love your username by the way, :D Thanks for the great review. And your support was really helpful._

**daelynn = **_If you don't already, you should get an account! I'd love to check out your profile. Thanks for the supports as well._

**Wingedsailorbatman = **_O.o loooong name! But easy to remember. :D lol. Thanks for the input but she learned how to control peoples minds in the end of the first book, she already somewhat knew how to place and read thoughts, see, I did my research! Ta-da. ;)_

**Sky-Angel14 = **_Short but effective, thanks!_

**Teaspoon = **_OMG? Lol. Thanks I'll work on updating fast too. ;D_

**Rosabell = **_Thanks, I don't know if I'd call it "supper amazing" but you're pretty damn awesome for the input. THANK YOU! -hugz-_

_FINALLY, That took a LOT of time, but it was worth it! Now here we go, on with the blood bath!. . . I mean, story! Whoopie._

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Three)))_

_**Death Valley, California, The School, Back Court Yard: 9:00 AM, Outside Time**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

I coughed again as my stomach it the ground, I would have to do something about that, I thought idly as the boy stood and looked at me with helpless but cold eyes. Oh. . . Wow. . . Not good!

The boy had hazel eyes, a few freckles pale skin, and weirdly silver hair. He was my age and man, he was just plain scary looking. I could faintly hear it begin to rain unrepentantly, but I focused on the boy, and I nodded, we knew. Survival of the fittest. I got up from my laying position and started to walk towards him.

Once we were face to face I heard him murmur something into my ear, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." I whispered back, and then all heck broke loose.

From a couple of years of trying to glide in the wind tunnels with Erasers leering at me from all directions, I knew somewhat how to fight. . . To a very limited extent. So in turn, I knew that if you wanted to win something you should always be the one to throw the first punch, and so I did.

I punched the boy in the chin as hard as I could. He went flying backwards. Everything was silent before the whole band of wing freaks like me started to cheer, I smiled at them as best I could knowing I might die in two seconds. A stupid mistake.

While I had been looking away the boy had jumped to his feet as his fuzzy _tiger ears _and _stripped tail _popped out and his _fangs _bared at me. Oh. . . Oh CRUD! He wasn't a freaky wing thing, he was a freaky _ears _thing! I yipped in surprise when he crouched and pounced on my back, pinning me down, onto the dry brown grass face first. I felt claws in my shoulders and I cried out as they reached my skin.

I heard happy cheering from a different place in the empty field the let us romp around in and booing from where my freaks were. My freaks? That was new. I knew that the Ear Boy weighed a ton more than me, but I tried to throw him off my arching my back as quickly as I could, he went flying all over again, but this time, his claws were firmly in my shoulders so I went flying with him.

I swore I heard him make a hissing sound as my back landed on his stomach and we slid for a few seconds. Neither of us moved for a moment before I grabbed his hands and ripped Ear Boys claws from my shoulder, he growled and I backed away hissing in pain.

Ear Boy jumped back to his feet and chased after me as I ran a few feet, then I spun around and kicked him hard in the ribs. Ear Boy huffed and punched me square in the nose, I winced and felt blood trickle down to my lip. Ear Boy grinned a fanged grin. I kicked him as fast and as hard as I dared without hurting myself, he screeched and fell back clutching him lower regions, I wondered why. Did it hurt more down there or something?

After a moment, I looked down and Ear Boy was still there, clutching and I was frozen still, waiting for the next attack as I licked the blood off of my chin and lip.

The Ear Boy sprung to his feet and glared at me in an animal way. One word came to mind, '_Savage' _Where had _that _come from? Oh well. I backed away farther from him. He just came closer to me again, the process continued until my back hit the fence some yards away and I was shocked, I screeched when the shock hit my shoulder wounds.

Ear Boy grinned an evil grin as I tried to hold my loose muscles up efficiently. The shock came again after a second and I winced, I heard someone shouting from behind the fence and I looked in the direction it was coming from.

It was Iggy, she was making a weird gesture with his hands, I gave him a wasted glare meaning I didn't know what he meant. But then, when Fang whispered in his ear something I couldn't hear, Iggy snapped open his wings.

Ta-da! I shook my head. While we had been at The School, none of us had never really learned how to fly, I only knew how to glide in full force winds, but as the Ear Boy made a running start straight for me, I glared at him, in determination.

I stepped only a little away from the fence and then _**SNAP **_my whole wing span was met, only just enough to allow me to glide. I heard the scientist gasp as they realized their mistake, allowing us to fight in a completely open area, with no feces, I could escape if I didn't die first.

Too bad that didn't come to mind until much, much latter. The Ear Boy just kept on coming, not able to stop at the speed he was coming at, and when he was just a few feet away from me, I jumped, I jumped as high as I could with as much strength as I could muster with complete and utter determination.

When I heard a whole bunch of people screaming/chanting; "**MAX, MAX, MAX, MAX, MAX, MAX, MAX, MAX, MAX!" **I knew without a doubt that I could fly as high as I needed to. So I made the muscles in my wings work, for the very first time in my whole swerved up life. Up, down, up down, up, down, and then my feet weren't touching soil and I was screaming with pain, I was able to get 20 whole feet into the air, but that was well enough, I heard a scream and then _**KZZZZZZZZZ **_soon the smell of burnt flesh hit my nose so hard I gasped and lost concentration, then I was falling.

My scream echoed through out the whole silent yard as I hit the ground full force. Then, when my scream subsided, the whole yard erupted into either loud cheers or hateful boos. And as the second bell rang indicating it was time to go in or else they would come and drag you in.

And when all of the other freaks were gone and I was still laying just feet away from Ear Boy's unmoving body, I realized what I had done. I was a monster. I filthy, monster who didn't deserve to live. I felt horrible, shredded up my Ear Boys claws and silent tears ran down my cheeks as a wolf man jerked me up by my light colored hair.

I watched as they burnt the remains of Ear Boy and then I heard The main White Coat, Jeb, yell, "Careful with her! No damaging the experiment from here on out!"

And then, I was swung over the wolf mans shoulder, the wolf holding me by mt elbows and I didn't have the nerve to fight anymore. I felt dead inside. I had just killed someone. Another living thing no longer had any choices or option but death, all because of me. I cried some more as the wolf man literally chucked me onto a large chair.

I may have been tired but I felt like thrashing as they connected the wires and held me down. I did manage to bite Jeb when he tried to shut me up. He yelped and then glared at me slightly, then said in a deadly voice.

"Remember your deal Maximum, you're treading a fine line." That was when I really shut up an allowed them to stick tubes down my throat, I choked a couple of times so they had to slap me once or twice, I glared and contemplated slapping them right back. Soon, I was held down by cold bendable metal straps attached to the operating chair. There was metal straps around my wrists and elbows, one around my neck, another around my waist, thigh, knees and ankles, looks like the White Coats had covered all of the bases. I felt drowsy for a second before Jeb bent over me and started explaining what they were going to do to me.

"We're going to be inserting a tracker into your left forearm for future uses." He explained, I suddenly began to struggle again. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, -

"_**NO!" **_I yelled at the tops of my lungs. I was sure everyone in the whole entire School had heard me. Then they covered my mouth with this numbing stuff so I couldn't feel my tongue anymore.

I was completely limp because of the drug they had given me. But I felt it when they cut open my arm with something shard and then they moved aside a muscle or two and very carefully placed a chip inside of my left arm. All of the White Coats had seemed tense like they weren't sure they were doing it right. They sewed up my arm sloppily with a already used needle that stung really badly. Then when the monitor still went '_beepbeepbeepbeep' _really fast but normal for me, they all started to congratulate each other.

After a second there was a loud siren and the White Coats all looked at my pale sick face as I threw up blood. Gallon and gallons of the red liquid heaved from my stomach up my throat as the White Coats all faced their leader, Jeb.

He looked lost as he watched me for a second. Then some short bald man ran in, all dishelmed and he started to scream something along the lines of.

"_You have the wrong chip! You have the wrong chip! __**Don't do anything, they've sent us the **__**wrong chip**__!"_

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_Ok, this is most definatly a better chapter then the last one! So take **THAT** society! I'll update when I get two reviews I'll update! Whoo. Sorry, I'm feeling spazy. Fun I know. A belated dedication to a late reveiwer!_

**babiixilyx3 = **_Thanks, I tried to make Angel sound Angel-ish I guess, it was just hard trying to find how I should make Nudge talk is all. :D Thanks for you're review it is greatly appreciated!_

_I NEED TO KNOW WHO YOU WANT TO END UP TOGETHER!!!!!! Tell me please! _

_I'll update soon._

_Siy Rowling?_


	4. Time To Escape

_O.o, how many freaking review can you guys SEND? I was LOOOOOVING it! And throwing it in my friends face as she reads over my shoulder! Lol. I defiantly got more than two reviews, but I loved all of the input I got and the love was just spreading man! :D I'll do dedications to all of my reviewr at the end._

_Ok, if any of you stop reviewing just because you don't have to. . . I'll be pissed. Not HUGELY, just pissed, cause I LOVE getting reviews. _

_Here's wingsandwands my best friend who is watching me right now and has read this fic=Hey People. Hey Siy, you said you didn't CARE if you got reviews. That makes you a liar._

_I hate her sometimes. Whatever. On with the story!_

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Four)))_

_**Death Valley, California, The School, Operating Room 32A: 2003, 10:47 AM**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

They wrong chip? _The wrong chip?! _I started to hypervenalate, blood was still coating my entire left arm and some of my stark white clothes. While everyone hurried about, Jeb looked at me, strong and steady. Then he strode over to the center of the chaos and barked orders, I started to twitch involuntarily. Then I started to throw up again, this time just the nutrient packets they gave us instead of blood.

As my head hung limply I heard Jeb instruct everyone that they would just have to go through the procedure without the chip. He said something about wires and someone cleaning up the blood puke.

Everything was so muddled that I just wanted to sleep, but they wouldn't let me, they just kept shocking me with the thing they hurt me with in the wind tunnel. I only screamed a couple times, like when they started to inject needles into my main veins. All of them.

My body started to jerk without me telling it to, and then I started to loose consciousness again, they didn't like that apparently, because they seemed to realize the tazer wasn't working anymore, they just brought in a wolf man and he started clawing me so hard more blood came gushing from the wounds.

Then they started to pump something into me, it was a gray cloudy liquid. By then I had stopped screaming and I was just gasping every now and then. Some people left the room, after a while it was just, me, the wolf man, Jeb and the bald man. The bald man looked frightened, maybe for his life? Jeb seemed so angry that he was about to punch Bald uy right in the nose. Wolf man was emotionless.

I heard them as they talked like I wasn't really there. I winced as I figured out what it was about.

"That chip was meant for the by half plan Dr. Batchelor, we had it specially made for your son, Ari. He was meant to be in training as of next year." Bald Guy said nervously as he twitched and wrung his hands. Jeb's face became even redder. He looked about as red as the blood that coated my whole body and some of the floor.

"And you didn't feel the need to inform me that the special chip had arrived?! Who's the one who's going to get blamed by the Director? She's the one that has over seen this whole project since she was twenty! And Maximum wasn't _built _for the by half plan! She was made to be a warrior. She's a billion dollar piece of machinery! Ari has time to learn! How do you think Maximum will fair against Erasers all by herself? Ari was built to withstand anything! If anything, Maximum is his body guard, she just proved that when she terminated the Asian Tiger experiment, which obvious failed in a fight!" Jeb was screaming at the top of his lungs by the time he was done. I swear I even saw the wolf man flinch.

"Well, Dr. Batchelor, I may have a few plans, if you'll allow me to see Maximum." Said a voice from the doorway. There was a women with normal clothes on, -well what I thought normal should look like- she was wearing a suit and her red hair was cut short. I had never cut my hair before, I wonder what it felt like.

They had seriously drugged me, -obviously- and I started to float into nothingness, then I felt something, like a burning in my. . . Wings? OH CRAP! I screamed long and loud as they shoved a needle into my bones that made my wings move. They said the word "bone marrow" a lot to each other. How the heck should I know what that means?! Tears ran down my cheeks. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow,-

"Ahhhh!" I screeched as they ripped all of the needles out one at a time. When I was left panting just laying limply on the chair, Jeb leaned down and whispered something along the lines of,

"You have thirty seconds after we drop you off for the night, get your Flock prepared Maximum." And then, the wolf man was unlocking the metal bands and I was choking on my own blood. The wolf man glared at me and swung me over his shoulder by my elbows again. I was so tired I barley knew what was going on.

Jeb's words were lost in a muddle when the wolf man opened the sliding door to our closet sized room. It was always dark inside of the room now so it was a nice relief. What wasn't though, was the fact that when the wolf man strode over to my cage I saw Fang and Angel both looking shocked. Why?

Did I look different? Maybe they gave me green skin or something. . . Then I remembered the blood all over me and winced when the wolf man threw the door to my cage open and shoved me inside of it, I let a whimper out, but only because my wings were starting to really hurt from that bone marrow crap. Then I started to suck up the pain.

Even if it hurt really bad, I would just have to get over it and wait for Jeb. And as soon as the wolf man sauntered out of the room, I started to count down. I heard myself rasping what Jeb had told me to the rest of my freaks. Everyone was silent for a moment before I noticed that they were all staring at me, I pulled myself up, hearing my struggle both of my friends grabbed my shoulders and helped me up. Iggy's brows furrowed as he felt my wings.

"You've had a lot of needles in your wings, what happened Max?" He murmured, everyone looked at me pointedly and I sighed, just as I was about to answer though, the door slid open and Yulanda strutted in again, but this time she didn't have a wolf man with her. Instead she seemed hurried.

Instantly I tensed, what was going on? Then she bent over and opened Iggy's cage, then Nudge', then Gasman's, then Fang's, she looked down at me with sorry eyes. I saw Fang had Angel so I was happy. But then I lurched to the front of the cage.

"Yulanda!" I demanded, she winced, I looked up at her, angry, "What are you doing?"

She bent down and looked me straight in the eyes. "I've been ordered to take your Flock and terminate them all Maximum, I'm very sorry." She said that in an emotionless voice, in that moment, I knew I had to protect, what had she called it? My what?

_Flock. _Said a little voice in my head, it was so weird especially since it wasn't Angel's baby voice, more like a man or maybe a women? I wasn't sure, but I brushed that off and began ramming against the bars as they all followed her out the door.

"You hurt any of them and I swear to you!" I screamed, it was hard to scream since my lung swore so over used. Yulanda turned around and glared at me, she may have seemed decent, but in the end she had betrayed us all, she would pay. "You hurt any of them, and I swear to you on my nonexistent life, I'll rip your throat out with my bare hands."

I had heard one of the wolf men say that once, and the man he had said that to had seemed down right scared, so I was hoping for the same reaction. Yulanda looked at the seriousness in my eyes and in that moment of hesitation, there was a loud, _**Bang! **_And Yulanda was falling, something metal had gone straight through her head.

My freaks all started to scatter, but when Jeb stepped into the room, I knew it was all going to be ok, it was time for my plan to take action. He jogged over to my cage and unlocked it swiftly as I stumbled out, not even able to hold myself up, Jeb grabbed my shoulder, I hissed that I could take care of myself and Jeb glared at me disapprovingly but my freaks all gathered around me, and they all leant me a hand as I hobbled out of the door.

"You're going to have to run, if you want to get out of here before they pull a code red." I wasn't sure exactly what he meant but apparently Iggy did, because he grabbed me and crouched so I could ride piggy back, I laughed a little as I realized the blind kid was carrying the leader. Fang, I knew, would have gladly given me a piggy back ride if it meant getting out of here, and the fact that he as my best friend helped too. But it confused me when he looked back at me every few seconds as we romped through the halls of the white building, trying our best to be quiet.

Then I saw big red glowing letters on a grey sign just above a door, and immediately knew what it was. And Exit sign. I didn't know how to read, I just had a gut feeling. As Jeb opened the door with a card of some plastic, we heard shouts behind us and a red light streamed in through the ceiling, Jeb almost literally threw us out the door, there, on a slab of pavement was an open black van? I really wasn't sure as of then. But I knew when we all jumped into the back of the black thing, that I felt unbelievably. . . Happy.

Then, as I laid off to the corner of the vans empty trunk, I slowly feel asleep, hoping silently this wasn't the last time I would close my eyes and with all of my might I whispered that I loved my freaks, I heard them all chuckle as the vans door slammed shut and then there was a clatter of keys and we were off, way too fats because I was thrown to the back with Angel in my arms, I used my own body as a cushion so she wouldn't be hurt.

"Max hurt bad." Angel gurgled as Nudge pried her from my stiff arms.

"We know, but some timez Ma' get hur' sooooooo ba' that she can' move no more bu' she still protectz us!" Nudge blabbered in her six year old voice tha seemed chirpy. Fang scooted closer to my slumped form and then we just laid there, staring at each other until I feel asleep. Even if we hadn't talked, we both got the same message from each other.

'_I'll protect you.' _

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_Soooo? Bad, Good, Ugly? You get the idea. :D Thanks to all of my reviewers who bother to read my story and I also want o thank everyone who read sand doesn't bother to review, at least you checked out my story, though I seriously need you guy's input every now and then! I'll do dedications when I stop being lazy! _

_Just imagine all of your names right about. . . . . . (HERE) . . . . . . There you go. :D _

_Seriously, I'll dedicate latter, I need two reviews to continue and I would appreciate the comments even if I already HAVE two reviews! _

_Siy Rowling?_


	5. Left Behind

_I already got one review from Goldie, (YOU ROCK! ) So I'll get going with this, I'll do dedications if I can at the end, alright? I just wanted to tell you all that you're awesome and you all deserve a chapter dedicated just to you, SO I have decided that I will dedicate a whole chapter to EVERYONE who reviews for this chapter! _

_Right now, Goldie, this chappie is just for you! ;D _

_I just got your review Randomallover so next chappie is all yours._

_Now here we go with all of the fun!_

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Five)))_

_**Longmont, Colorado, Highway 25: 2:09 AM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

_**Wham!**_ I gasped as we hit a pot hole, well, that was what Jeb had been calling them as we went down dirt roads and back ways and all that other crap he was mumbling. All of my freaks were sleeping around me, Fang was so close I could feel the heat that gathered between us, Angel and Nudge were curled up in a corner where Nudge had been blabbering until Angle fell asleep, Iggy was neatly on his back just in a foots reach of me so if he needed me he would just have to reach up and I would be there, and then Gasman, -who was becoming attached to Angel- was close to Nudge, sprawled out, probably loving all of the room he was getting compared to his old cage. Since he was only four I wouldn't blame him.

I wanted to sleep, seriously, I would have gladly gone back to dream land! But I was still bleeding a little and I didn't want to reopen any of the wounds that had closed when I had been sleeping. The needle holes were closed and almost healed and the wolf man lashes had subsided. I was still breathing weirdly and the place where the White Coats had inserted that. . . What was it? I. . . I couldn't remember. All I remember about that day was pain and guilt.

I had nothing to be guilty for. . . Did I? What did I do wrong? Had I done anything wrong? And didn't I have something to be angry about too?! Ugh!

I tried as hard as I could, still there was nothing I could remember but that I was sad and angry and guilty and, and something else. Something important happened. But another pot hole jolted me out of my thinking. I screeched as I hit the van floor. I had landed on my forearm right where the stitches were. I glared at the van door. As we bumped down the dir road, I looked at my freaks. They were all. . . What was the word? I had never heard it before but I knew it was there in the back of my mind.

_Peaceful, _I breathed a sigh as I finally found the right word. That had been happening a lot lately. But that was back at the back of my mind when the van jerked still. All of my freaks were awake in a moment. Then the engine quieted too and we were left in complete silence.

"Max what's goin-" Iggy started, but was cut off when Jeb swung open the Van doors. It was probably meant to be a friendly, I'm-not-gonna-terminate-you kind of gesture, and it would have seemed that way of I wasn't leaning _against _said doors. I fell back, three pairs of hands caught me, Jeb had my back, Fang had my right arm and Iggy had my left, there was a moment of weirdness where none of them let me go and I started to get uncomfortable, then I smiled at them in a hurt kind of wince-ish way as Iggy and Fang let go, letting Jeb get me back on balance.

I spun around and jumped from the van with a little bit of zeal, that was when the smell hit me like a ton-o-bricks. It was completely clear. The air wafted around me in little drifts and I gulped down gallons of it. It was cold. Bloody _cold. _It wasn't stuffy like back at the evil who-really-cares-any-more place, and it wasn't thick with horrible too sweet or too bitter smells that would most likely be injected into my veins.

Everything around me was beautiful and wonderful and open, there were no fences or gates or walls or cages and we were all ok. I was just in a weird state of awe struckness when I suddenly started to bubble feelings left and right. I heard the other freaks get out of the trunk of the prison we had been in for the past day.

This was what the world really felt like, not that stupid smelling evil place I _never _wanted to go back there, and I didn't plan on it, I didn't plan on letting any of my freaks get stuck in there either. That was a promise to myself.

Then I really started to bubble over with emotions that all seemed to spill into my stomach.

I felt like screaming and crying and hoping around and learning how to use my wings and hugging Jeb and hugging Fang and hugging Iggy, what the heck, I felt like hugging everyone in the freaking _world! _We were out! We were free! I ended up running around with Nudge, Iggy, Angel and a confused Gasman for a while. Fang was investigating around the other side of the van. Who cared about Fang right now though, I was _happy!_

Jeb sat on the floor of the open van with his legs hanging off in a weird gangly way and he put his head in his hands. I heard him muttering something about someone named God. I didn't care though, I was hugging my freaks tightly all of them one at a time. First was Nudge and Angel since they were closet to me, I squeezed hard next I gently hugged The Gasman, then I almost squeezed the life out of poor blind Iggy. I still couldn't find Fang so I just fell back on the grass barley realizing the pain in my wings was throbbing like crazy.

Right about then, my dreams almost came to an end when I heard another car coming down the stupid road that I now hate eternally. "What's going on?" I ground out as I glared at a confused Jeb.

He barley acknowledged me, "Get in the car." He murmured. I hustled my freaks into the trunk again, I watched as Jeb rushed around, getting frantic, while I climbed into the back of the van I noticed that Fang wasn't there. I started to panic myself.

Where was he? I jumped as Jeb started the car again. And then, outside of one of the back windows I saw Fang stumbling out of the thick forest that was next to the clearing we had been in. I screamed for Jeb but the engine was too loud, I decided quickly, it was my turn to save somebody. So as I wrenched the door open, a determined look placed itself on my face. And then, I jumped out of the trunk and spread my sore wings so I caught the air around me.

Fang looked awe struck as I grabbed onto him and then tried to lift him with all of my nonexistent might. And then I saw the truck rumbling up the path just behind a grove of trees, I might have had three seconds before the truck grumbled down our little path.

My pushed myself harder, and then I saw Iggy reaching out the back door, Nudge was directing him, sitting in her corner with Angel, Gasman just looked plain scarred as I tried to get my stiff wings to _move!_ And they did. But not fast enough, because if I had been more observant and not left Fang behind in the first place, we would have both made it in the trunk.

I saw Iggy reaching out and so was a wide eyed Fang. I could barley hold him off of the ground. So I struggled, but I ended up bringing Fang higher, then I threw him straight into Iggy. They tumbled and Iggy's foot accidentally pulled the door closed so when my wings gave out again, I was just rolling down hill through some thick underbrush. I bit my lip as thorns tore into my open flesh.

I growled as I finally hit the bottom of the stream with a _thud. _

The van was long gone by the time I had hiked up the huge hill, it was almost. . . Feeding time. I thought for a moment before deciding, it was time back at the School where we would be given one nutrition packet each and then sent back to testing. The White Coats called it noon. I wondered what that meant as I panted at the top of the hill.

Feeling like I was about to collapse, I waited for a while to catch my breathe, then I winced as I realized some of my old wounds had reopened. Well, greeeeaaat. I didn't have any more self control really, so when I fell asleep, you really couldn't blame me. My dream was frothy and foggy and weird. It was the first dream I ever remember having, so I will never forget it.

Someone was leading me back through the forest that I had been in before. But when we reached the bottom of the hill, the stream that had been bubbling close to my head wasn't a stream of water, it was a stream of blood. Not just anyone's blood. My blood.

And that was all I remembered from it, just the blood and the mist and the person. I hated it and I never wanted to see it again. I thrashed and moaned and reopened a couple new wounds. It hurt again so much that it jerked me out of my dream.

Panting like a floppy eared experiment, I dragged myself out of a collapsed position. The road next to me was dead silent and no one was near nor far. Where had my freaks gone? And Jeb, what happened to him? I planned to find out, no matter how far I had to walk to get there.

So I started to journey, little did I know how high up I would be going. I was just a kid. But I was a determined kid, and that was going to get me through more than one disaster.

Only a single thought passed through my brain as I struggled to keep a steady pace and follow the deep skid marks left by the big van.

'_I'm coming, no matter how long, no matter how far, I'll find __**my **__freaks.'_

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_TWO chapters in one night and I'm dead tired and I have to go back to school tomorrow, well. . . All I can say. . . At least the apocalypse isn't coming! ;D Not to jinx anything or something like that. _

_I might not be able to update a lot until Wednesday hence the extra chappie, but I'll try and post at least one new chapter everyday maybe two every day. The more reviews I get the more likely I am to update, just keep that in mind! Oh, by the way, I need two more review by tomorrow night to update again. _

_Siy Rowling?_


	6. Murdurer

_O.o, did I ever tell you guys how freaking much I love ya'll? I warned you I might not update today and now look, here you are giving me a million reviews! Ugh! I felt horrible so I'm updating as fast as I can! Love ya'll!_

_This chapter is dedicated to Randomallover, nice profile picture who's cat? Lol. :D Hope everyone likes this chapter!_

_Everyone that reviewed last chapter will get a chapter devoted just to them like I promised so no worries. _

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Six)))_

_**Longmont, Colorado, Back Trail to Longs Peak: 8:07 PM 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

'_In, out, in, out, come on, they don't call you Maximum Ride for nothing! Let's go. One, two. You wimp! My nonexistent Grandma can jog faster than you!' _I started to cough that funny white slimy stuff again, it eventually led to blood so I had to pick up my pace. When I started to puke blood it was really hard to start running again. But I managed mostly because I was taunting myself in my head.

I had been running slash fluttering all the way up the mountain Jeb and my freaks had disappeared up. Feeling like a piece of crap, I held onto my needs and started to dry heave again. '_Come on Max, when did you become such a. . . A. . . Female?' _My inner voice sneered, ok that was it! I growled and then took off up the mountain, bringing my legs all the way up to my stomach and then snapping them back down. I could do this, my name _is _Maximum Ride, for a reason. And I was going to prove it. If my freaks couldn't handle this then I would have to show them how!

'_Almost there!' _I told myself over and over again. But where was "there"? Was it some peaceful wonderful place where my freaks were happy and I was able to relax? Like the field that I had been frolicking in earlier? But I shook that thought off immediately, I couldn't focus on that, I had to get to my freaks.

I let my eyes wander the blurring mountain range, wait, where had that come from? How did I even _know _any of this stuff?! I started to get angry with myself all over again. All I wanted was a normal life! I just wanted to not _have _to be tested on. I didn't _want _to have to puke up blood! I wanted. . . I wanted. . . What _did _I want? Did I want a normal life? Really? I wasn't sure I really wanted that.

The only thing I knew was this life and this now. I might be getting it easy compared to some people. Well, they probably didn't have wings that were weighed down my water right about then, but they might have it worse. Like Ears Boy!

The thought of my opponent made me tear up. '_Ok Max, no crying! Just. . . Breathe. Slowly. Gooood.'_ I started to get angry at myself, I felt my muscles started to constrict around themselves and then un-constrict and leave me feeling like jelly with ice cold limbs. It hurt so badly I though I was going to pass out, but then I glared at nothing and thought snidely, '_Maximum Ride, __**does not, under ANY circumstances PASS OUT!'**_ In out, in, out, in, out, in, out. I listened to my heart thump like there was no tomorrow, thumpthumpthumpthumpthump. That was a normal heart beat for me so I just fell into pace with that.

And suddenly, I wasn't on my feet anymore. I was on the ground groaning as something dragged me away from the trail. I didn't have the energy to open my eyes. '_So tired. Maybe if I just go to sleep, it'll all be ok.'_

Then there was a loud noise,a growl deep and low, I felt the long white thin material rip as I was dragged away from my trial, from my freaks and Jeb and freadom and I wanted to scream because I knew of I didn't fight back I would be dead. I would loose everything forever.

To my surprise, my body didn't move when I comanded it to jerk away from the grip the thing had on me. I was paralyzed. Worse than when they had put that. . . What was I thinking about again? I was lost in an utter silence that rattled through my head.

It made a _**ca-cliiiing **_kind of sound as I tried to break down the walls. I didn't even know why I wanted to break the walls! Ugh! I was angry and mad and fed up and just, over all, done with fighting.

But that was lost as my consciousness faded and I didn't have the strength to fight back anymore, I had done too much. . . Too. . . _MUCH. . . _

_**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peak, Back Woods: 3:23 AM 2003**_

I felt something tearing into my leg, when sharp teeth actually chomped into my right thigh, I knew I was about to be eaten. . . Alive, that is. I jerked my leg away and ended up ripping a chunk of my thigh muscle out.

I screamed long and loud with my whole heart as I jerked up, looked down at my leg and then saw the huge gaping _hole. _My fear turned into fury as the big animal I didn't know the name to seemed to leer at me. My scream turned into a savage battle cry as I pounced, using my banged up wings to support me a little bit. I clung to the side of the massive furry and thick skinned animal, thick skin? No problem. Animal trying to shake me off while I pumble it, well we have a different story!

This, this _thing _was trying to eat me! It was trying to take me away from my freaks! It was trying to kill me! It was coming after _**MY **_freaks. No one else's. I ripped and tore and bit and even kicked it in the same spot as Ear Boy hated, after a while though, the beast was able to shake me off and had pinned me. No, no, bad, not good. Ummm, wow. The original bout of rage I had, had worn off and there I was, just laying there as the animal looked at me with curious eyes. I stared into the large black eyes as it leaned down to chew on me some more.

Its eyes! I felt stupid for not thinking about it before. I yanked my arm out from under the animal, earning a long gouge down my left skinny arm. And then I sunk my long fingers into the animals unsuspecting eyes. It howled in pain as I pulled my other arm free and did the same to its other eye. The animal started to thrash and bite and whimper as I dug deeper into its eyes with my dirty nails and fingers. Take that world. Maximum Ride wasn't giving up without a fight!

Weird goo-ish liquid gushed from its' eye as did blood and it all ended up poring down on me. It was disgusting and I wish I had never had to do it. As the animal started to twitch as I went farther back into its eye sockets I knew I had killed it. I was a murderer two times over.

I was more of a monster than the freakin' dead beast! I just couldn't stop killing. It was like there was something wrong with me! What did I do? Why did I have to be this way. I was worse than a _White Coat! _I found myself on my back, the weird stuff crusting on my hands and the animal that weighed a million pounds still pinning me down. I had killed it and Ear Boy, they both deserved a life, I had taken it away for my own stupid life that didn't even mean anything.

I was just a wing freak. Nothing more. All I really deserved was the School, with all of the horrible things I had done. I deserved that stupid surgery I couldn't remember. I deserved puking all of my freaking guts out, heck, I deserved a smaller cage! Why did I have to win against Ear Boy? Why did I always have to freaking _**win?! **_

My morbid thoughts were interrupted when a thought that defiantly wasn't mine slipped in past my depression.

'_Max there? Max there? Where Max?' _My baby freak was calling me, I couldn't just lay around moping about my choices, why? Well, because I am Maximum Ride, and Maximum Ride, takes care of her freaks. So I pushed the animal off of me with great effort and hobbled to the front of the stone cave I had been in.

I grunted in my mind to let Angel know I was there. She squealed and I heard her as she sent an excited thought to all of my freaks. She started to try and out together sentences but couldn't quite form a word in her happiness. Then she was out of my head and I started to get confused.

'_Just keep walking Maximum, just keep walking.' _I told myself, or, at least. . . I _think _it was me telling myself, the loss of blood over the past few days had started to catch up with me. So I just kept trudging up the mountain, the animal had pulled me from the main road so I was just stumbling through the thick forest. Grunting every time I tripped in a root of a plant or something stupid like that. The line, '_Just keep walking Max.' _Played in my head and then I wasn't sure if I was walking or running or laying down or even if I was being eaten alive anymore. I was just there. Trying to keep a steady rhythm. In, out, in, out, in, out. And then I tripped over a huge rock and dirt got into my gouged open leg. I screamed when I felt a little animal smelling the blood that was pooling around my leg and soaking my grungy stark white clothes.

I dragged myself further and then, suddenly, I was one the mail trail again. I thanked whoever had been looking out for me mentally. I was lucky. I had to pay more attention next time. Tears ran down my cheeks and I dried them quickly as I got in my knees and then I proped myself up on my feet and soon, I was walking again.

There was a pure force of power rushing through my veins as the blood all over my body started to dry and some of it started to flake off. I gagged a little when I saw a squirrel shove a large chunk of dried Max-Blood into its mouth and then scamper off.

'_Nasty.' _Then I felt Angel in my head as she grumpily tried to relay a message to me, I couldn't understand what she was saying so I just kept walking. In, out, in, out, in, out. Then I saw it, the black van it was speeding down the road, right towards me. I began smiling as I saw a shocked Jeb driving, then I fell and just laid there face up on the dirt trail, grinning like an idiot.

One second I was alone the next I was being picked up by Jeb. I heard Fang's angry voice demand that Jeb put me down immediately, you could tell he didn't trust Jeb as far as he could throw him. Jeb glared down at Fang as he watched him intently. Then I was in the back of the van with my freaks all surrounding me and telling me how sad they had been without me and how much they liked me and never wanted me to go away again.

One final thought passed through as I started to drift off to sleep.

'_We happy you back Maxie!' _

_**(((End Chapter)))**_

_Alright, I don't have a lot of time, I'm not supposed to be on the computer right now. So I'll dedicate latter. SORRY! _

_Siy Rowling?_


	7. Angel Crying

__

Alright, I already wrote this chapie. . . TWICE! On my sisters laptop and it got deleted both times. I love the reviews I got, they rock! I love you guys seriously, you all are awesome, I love you guys, Randomall over and Goldie, you two always review. This chapter -As promised- is dedicated to. . . (drum roll please)

****

RandomPerson121212

Applause! (crowed cheers) Ohz yeahz.

Ok, with that over with, Ill dedicate a chapter to everyone who reviewed chapter four. :D Sorry this is going on at, 11:00, Im sneaking on again. Lol. WHILE WHATCHING SCOOBY-DOO! Sorry, had to say that.

I hope you all like this chapter. . .

Now, ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

Siy Rowling?

(((Chapter Seven)))

****

Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peak, Back Woods: 10:83 PM, 2003

(Maximum P.O.V)

My two best friends helped me hobble into the building type thing. As soon as Nudge ran up and opened the door, I knew she had been here before. A warm draft of air floated and met my almost frozen body as Iggy and Fang lifted me a couple of inches off of the ground so I could hop over the door stop.

On the ride up here, I had lost more and more blood, now I was starting to get sick. Iggy must have somehow noticed because he let my head loll and rest on his shoulder. Fang glanced at us once or twice and I could tell he was worried.

Jeb closed the door closely behind us. I stiffened visibly and hoped that wolf men werent going to jump out at us, baring their fangs. After glaring at my two best friends, Jeb tried to grab me from under the arms but Fang jerked me away. Being blind, Iggy just looked confused at the my absence. Jeb muttered something under his breath.

Alright, Experiment 2- I mean, Fang, help me bring Maximum into that room over there. Jeb was trying to sound commanding, he really was, but when we all just stared at him like he was an idiot. He sighed and gave me a pointed look. I nodded and gave a similar look to Fang.

__

Being the all quiet Fang, he just dragged me into a room across the threshold from where Jeb had told him to bring me to. We all glared at the White Coat. Even if we were young we werent stupid. I bared my teeth as Fang had to let go of me for a moment to open the huge door, the huge chunk of my leg that had been missing bled just a little bit as I put pressure on it. It hurt. Thats all I can say without using the word that one wolf man taught me.

Jeb brushed past Fang and picked me up by my arms. I growled at him openly and he winced. Well, he wasnt the one in severe pain, now was he? All of my freaks tried to follow me and Jeb inside.

Maximum doesnt need to be crowded, Im just going to bandage her up and then you all get to pick rooms. Now shoo. His tone was meant to be final but again with the staring and not listening. Another pointed look. Another sigh from me. Things were getting complicated again.

Come on gu- guaaaaaaahhh! I doubled over in pain, my legs folding under me. Jeb had let me go so I could sit on the table, -really a desk- by myself, but had let go too quickly. While I laid on the floor, I saw with my freaky vision dust and little insects start to either craw farther into the gash or away from it. That was probably what sent me over the mental edge.

I became so angry, I hated my freaks and the stupid White Coats, I even hated myself. Especially myself. Why?! Why did we all have to go through this? I hated it, I truly without a doubt hated it. But then I was pulled from my inner battles with a sickening lung when Angel started to cry and scream.

Gasman, who was holding her at the time, started to panic and step away from the doorway where he stood. Which led to Nudge taking Angel and then starting to panic when she couldnt do anything and then Iggy backed away when Nudge tried to give Angel to him. Jeb pulled at his tie and looked around, obviously not used to babys and crying. Then Fang just looked clueless as Nudge shoved Angel into his arms. Everyone was starting to yell at each other, the noise levels were hurting my freak hearing. When Fang let Angel drop onto the offices desk, I knew I had to stop the craziness.

_SHUT UP! _My scream echoed through out the almost empty building. I still wasnt sure what it was, maybe another School. I really didnt care at this point. Everyone quickly quieted, even Jeb. Pushing myself up from my crouched position, I glared at everyone, and then I literally drug myself to the desk where Angel still lay crying. I pulled myself up and shushed her quickly by rocking her. Now you guys, go claim your freaking rooms, no matter what Nudge and Angel have to share a room. Go. I barked.

Everyone quickly left the room, Fang grabbing Angel, all except for Jeb. He just nodded and helped me up on the table and then pulled away the stark used-to-be-white School clothing that had become like a second skin to me. I flinched as he got a big black bag from under the cleared table and got out a huge wide string of white cottony stuff that -after he drenched my whole body in stuff that stung so badly I wanted to scream again- Jeb wrapped me up in it so tightly it hurt again. Blood quickly seeped into the bandages and Jeb had to change them again twice before he gave me a new change of clothes and apologized that a bear had attacked me. Whatever that was.

By the time I got down to the hallway my freaks had all chosen rooms. They had left one for me, just for me. I smiled and Iggy, probably waiting for me, put one of my arms around his shoulder and his around mine and told me to direct him.

Thanks Ig. I muttered, Iggy grunted in response as he shifted my weight to one side and felt around on the wall next to the door for a light switch. When light flooded into my room, I smiled. Really not knowing what I was supposed to do then, Iggy asked me were the mattress on stilts was, and told me he knew it was a bed and that you were supposed to sleep on it.

I thanked him and shooed him out of my room. That never got old, _my _room. _My _freaks. _My _life. I liked it. On his way out, Iggy said something like good night and then shut off the light.

I collapsed on the fluffy mattress on stilts. My room. Still not getting old. Then Angels voice echoed through out the halls of my mind.

__

Night Maxie!

****

(((Chapter End)))

Ok two reviews, I have to go! Sorry.


	8. All Okay

__

O.o . . . I. Am. Freaking. OUT! I tried to update yesterday and all of my files were r\erased from micro soft word!!!!!! All of it! All, right, it wasnt a fabulous kick ass chapter like the last one but it was pretty darn good! Grrr. Im so sorry I went a whole day without updating so Ill make it up to you by posting two chapters tomorrow or today if I can. Im just kind of freaking cause I actually had some school stuff on here too!

Oh well, I learn to deal with it. . . Sooner or latter. Lol. Ill do dedications at the end if I can.

So here we go. . .

THE STORY!

Siy Rowling?

(((Chapter Eight)))

****

Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peak, Backwoods: 11:55 AM, 2003

(Maximum P.O.V)

I found myself waking up and going back to sleep, every other second. It was weird kind of a mesh world of nightmares and cold reality, I wasnt sure which one I wanted more. I knew I would wake up in a cage and then I would have to face everything, then, a little fact nagged in the back of my mind.

__

Its way past lights on, why hasnt Yulanda come for me yet?

Jack knifing into a sitting position, I jerked my head left and right, facing my surroundings and ignoring the pain that was ebbing into my consciousness. Then, with a flash, I was pushing myself off of the mattress on stilts. Wait. . . Mattress on stilts?

__

Iggy, if I didnt remember anything from before then they must have been more lost than me! Suddenly, I knew it was a mistake to get up because, looking down from where the pain was coming from most, I saw something that scared the crud out of me. Yes me, maximum Ride. . . Blood had gotten through the bandages and through the green pants that were made of soft material that I looooooooooved. My blood was starting to crust around the edges so it had happened recently, I had probably moved around too much while I slept, I was a light sleeper, hence the waking and then the sleeping and then the waking and then the sleeping.

The clothes Jeb had given me the nigh before were the best things that had ever touched my body, soft material, an actual color, no blood stains above the waist. In short, Jeb was awesome, the clothes were awesome, heck, even that door was freaking _awesome!_

Looking around, I saw a window, a huge freaking window, I could probably fit two Maxs in there! And that was saying something to a crazy wing freak! I had only seen a window once before in my whole life and it had been smaller than Angel, she was as big as both of my skinny hands pout together. . . Now thats saying something. The mattress on stilts wasnt huge like the window, but I liked it, it smelled like me. Something that had never happened before. I had never owned anything in my whole life, the people had always said they owned me, and I had learned to deal with that eventually.

All of my warm fuzzies were swept away when I stepped fully on my bleeding leg. Should I have any more blood to bleed? I found myself asking anyone in my head as I cried out and fell to the floor. _be brave Maximum. _I told myself over and over again, _Youre Maximum rode, pain is nothing to you._

I then snapped back at _myself, Then why does it hurt so much?_

I knew I was going too far and that I just needed to breath and find out what was going on and if this was secretly another School and this was just another test and- and- and- well. . . I was put of ands. Not a regular Maximum trait. I slumped back on the floor and closed my eyes, feeling the world start to spin around me, or maybe I was spinning and the world was staying still? Either way it felt cool. And not in a normal way. I was lost in my own little dream land when a thought shattered everything.

__

Max dead?

Angel was here, she was seriously here, I opened my eyes more quickly than you could blink, and then I pulled myself to my feet just as quickly, hating but loving the pain at the same time. I started for the door and just hoped beyond hope that a bunch of wolf men werent going to jump out and eat me. When I rammed the door open and stomped down the hall, every freaking person in that building knew I was mad. If anyone had touched a hair on any of my freaks heads-

My balling fists unclenched and I was staring wide eyed at the scene before me.

Everyone was all gathered around a counter where they were eating something, I didnt know what. They all looked. . . Normal, for lack of a better word. Breath taxingly normal and happy and. . . Free? I realized I was ruining their moment when they all turned to stare at me. A piece of thick meat hung from Fangs mouth as they all stared at my leg and white stuff covered the Gasmans whole face. And then, when they finally looked up at my face in complete astonishment, I smiled a smile that could kick anyone elses sorry ok smiles into next Monday, Tuesday or Friday, take your pick. They all smiled back at me, knowing what I was thinking.

__

Our moment was ruined when Jeb came bristling into the room, and when he saw my leg, he immediately thought I was about to die. . . Literally. Over dramatic and over in a minute, I assured him I was fine. Heck, I would be fine as long as my freaks were happy. The White Coat might not have been good with my freaks, but he was starting to grow on me, just a little. Not that I would tell anyone. . . Yet.

Jeb was nervous, obviously, but he seemed just a tad bit more comfortable with me than the others. And I guess I didnt mind, he was the one that tortured me back at the School place, wait, the School, I immediately stiffened and looked at Jeb with cold eyes. He seemed to not notice, or maybe not care, because he bent down, and pulled my scarlet leg out from under me, causing me to fall as he examined it for the third or forth time, if you counted the night before. Everyone was still looking at me with either happiness or confusion, bet you can guess which of my blind freaks was confused.

Experiment 12- I mean, . . . Fang, go into my office, the room from last night and get my black leather bag. Its under my table. Jeb called after Fang as he rushed to grab the bag, then, when Jeb started to lecture me about taking care of myself and how I could have just gotten him instead of sleeping all day. . . I decided, I didnt need to ask any questions. I was happy. And Jeb would be great with my freaks and I. If we made it past today.

Even if we did, I would be counting the day until wolf men raided the building and started to tear us to shreds. _Over my dead body. _And it literally _would _be over my dead body. Fun, I know.

Fang ran back into the room with the bag from last night, hopefully this time I wouldnt use up so many. Jeb rolled the pant leg up as he cleaned the wound with fast working hands that got the job done just as quickly as I had jumped to conclusions about the White Coat.

****

Angels little fluffy, non-flyable wings snapped out as she started to cry. A usual. She looked a little like a fluffy white beak experiment I had seen before she was terminated. Funny looking thing. Too bad its guts had turned to grey mush and pooled around both my and my other freaks cages as well, the smell was probably still there!

Has anybody fed her yet? My voice was dry, dry and annoying and old man like, I hacked on my own spit for a second to wet my throat. Then I stared at each of my freaks and saw the uncomfortable-ness start to show on their faces. I rolled my eyes. Nudge quickly jumped to her feet and I suddenly was worried again, did Nudge already know what she was doing around here? What if she hurt someone.

Then, when Nudges calm, easy chatter filled the silent room, I smiled, and Jeb put the finishing touches on my bandages. By then, the room smelled of salty stuff that basically made the School, the School, Jeb had called it anti septic but I was sticking with salty stuff. I looked around and found what I had been looking for, I hobbled over to the wall and I heard faintly as Jeb muttered that I really shouldnt be walking.

I opened the window and breathed the just as clean as before air that I was coming to love I heard my freaks all sigh, happy. Then a little gray and brown squirrel jumped onto the window sill and I almost felt my heart popping from my chest. It was Blood Max squirrel! I backed away slowly. Oh. My-

Then the stupid squirrel did the worst thing possible, it jumped into the room, scurried to the spot I had been sitting in and stuffed a whole bunch of Max Blood into its mouth and then started to chew, then swallow finally, it squawked at us all, jumped back onto the sill, outside and then, it was gone, lost in the thick forest that surrounded the building, and I slammed the window shut. Breathing quickly and freaking out beyond belief.

Everyone had been silent since the moment I opened the window, surprisingly, my freaks and Jeb all stayed quiet until. . .

Who wants breakfast? Jeb asked after a long silence.

Me? It was more like a question, I didnt know if I could stomach that as of then.

Angel had stopped crying and then was giggling, I looked over at her in disbelief. So, terrifying me with squirrels is your favorite past time? I asked my little freak in a tired voice that sounded a little fake angry, Angel who was in Iggys lap turned to be directly.

She seemed to smile a huge smile and then said, Funny squirrel!

**__**

(((Chapter End)))

__

I hope you all like my little bit at the end, next chapter it gets triangle-y Im not sure whos going to end up with who, so make sure you vote! I would like to thank everyone for reviewing and my next dedication will be next chapter, as of now, this is for all of you guys who reviewed, Ill name you with your own chapters latter when Im not stealing a laptop. Lol.

__

I need two reviews to continue and remember, it was an accident that I didnt update sooner, Ill update at least once everyday. If I can, Ill update latter tonight again.

__

Siy Rowling?


	9. Time To Fly

__

Ok, no excuses, I was lazy and didnt update. Just expect those two chapters today. Dont hate me. I love all of you guys for the lack of flames and the reviews, Im also loving my feedback! Just keep reviewing, the more reviews I get, the sooner I update.

This chapter I dedicated to. . .

****

Dealynn

I hope all of you enjoy these two chapters! The another notes might not be as long as the others since there **will **be two chapters posted by the end of the day. That is a promise, comand, and wish. Get the idea? Ok, now. . . TIME SKIP TIME!

(((Chapter Nine)))

****

Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peak, Mountain Top: 1:34 PM, 2003

(Maximum P.O.V)

Alright, dont give up, come _on _guys! I yelled for the millionth time as my freaks started to look tired and beaten. But I wasnt going to let them quit. Not after all we had been through. Seriously, you saw me back at the School. It was hard, but its doable.

And it was, flying was doable, and, I had been getting better at trying to push a foot off of the ground! Jeb, was watching from a lawn chair just a few yards away, directing us every now and then. He had a book about birds and how they fly, but that really wasnt helping much. It had been two months since we had arrived here and Jeb and I had decided it was time to learn how to really use the crud the School gave us. Our wings.

At first everyone had been all gun ho, then they figured out it wasnt that easy. We were at the very peak of the mountain we were hiding in and around. A town was nearby and Jeb was able to go for food every now and then, seeing as we ate more than he did, it was hard at first. Still was, but we were getting used to not getting tested on every day.

There was still a huge puckering scar where I wasnt sure what had happened, but it was fading. I knew it was bad and that I really should remember, but I ust. . . Didnt. No matter how hard I tried, it was all murky and all I remembered was killing Ear Boy then Jeb rushing us out of the School. It was just freaky, like me, so I tried to not think about it much. The gouge in my leg was filling with flesh, well, it was almost completely healed, which Jeb found amazing. Sometimes I could see the White Coat in him pop out, but he was trying, he really was.

Max! Nudge screamed as she jumped from the ground and flung out her wings, I could see that was a big accomplishment for her so I clapped. All of my freaks were looking at each other nervously. We had ever learned how to fly, or if we even could fly, I knew I could glide on strong wind and crap like that, from the wind tunnel, but I wasnt sure if I could actually make my wings work.

Great Nudge! Keep it up, literally. I muttered the last part under my breath, Iggy laughed though and looked in my direction, we had figured out that, after the White Coats took his sight, his other senses had enhanced, whatever that word meant, Jeb just said it a lot.

Iggy was quickly becoming closer to me, so was Fang, but I was becoming more and more attached to Angel. Jeb frowned on that, but I said, heck to him, Angel was like my little sister. We were quickly learning terms and words and even a few catch phrases. Weird, I know.

I glared at Iggy and Nudge looked at me, confused. Well, I thought I was pretty good. She muttered in a let down way, I jogged over to her and smiled a toothy smile.

You were doing fine, Iggy was being mean, Ill kick his butt latter. I said in a cheery way that was quickly draining me. Then I decided I might as well try too. I hadnt even thought about trying myself, but maybe I could improve a lot too. I had only been off the ground by myself without the help of the wind tunnel once in my whole life. When I had killed Ear Boy, and this really wasnt helping any.

Then, something completely horrible happened, I heard a rustling in the trees behind us, I passed it off as the wind, but when I heard it a couple more times and Iggy did too, I started to get worried. I didnt want to freak out my freaks so I just murmured to Iggy that I would check it out and be right back.

As I got closer and closer to the trees, something began shifting in the under growth, -see another big word, arent I the smartest?!- and then, a brown and black blur dashed from the trees and tried to pounce on the closest thing it saw, me. Aww, crap. I was pulled to the ground by its claws.

All of my freaks and Jeb spun around to face the new threat, it was like a bigger model of the monster that had attacked me before. It was a female, and it was mad. I wiggled out from under it and started towards my freaks, screaming the whole way that they had to go.

Then something clicked in my head as the monster romped after me, I veered off coarse and began running faster, the monster following. My freaks looked at me, after scattering. Then Jeb seemed to be on my wave length and called my freaks so they wouldnt get hurt. I smirked and looked behind me as the monster gained on me, fast.

A little too fast, because I was just making this up as I went along. My freaks were trying to help me but Jeb wouldnt let them, which I was glad about really. Then I saw a break in the terrain, something I hadnt been counting on. But it was too late to see how far down the break was, because I was running too fast. And when I started to fall, the ground hundreds of yards bellow me, I just acted on instinct.

I snapped out my wings and pumped them, updownupdownupdownupdown, as fast and powerfully as I could. I was being lifted by a force that seemed to be only partly from me. It was magic and wonderful and beautiful and awesome, see, I had learned some schmancy words! Ta-da. But other than my large word choice, I didnt know what was going on, I felt a rustle of wind push past me and go through my open wings?

Wait was, I. . . Could I be. . . No. I couldnt be. But I was, I was flying baby! 100% percent in the air! I felt like doing a happy dance, but to do that, I would have to open my tightly closed eyes. Slowly, I looked down, and there was the monster, it was rolling down the side of the jagged cliff side, I winced as I saw a couple of chunks of skin and fur stuck to the side of the cliff, ouch.

At least my freaks were safe. With that thought, I realized I was getting farther away from the ledge I had just jumped from. My freaks and Jeb were waiting for me there, urging me to come closer, seeing as I was super tired and barley in the sky any more, I gladly hovered closer, as steadily as I could. Which wasnt saying much because I was shaking like the nutrition packets if you spat in them and let them sit around for about an hour, trust me, not the best idea.

I collapsed on the rocky ledge and almost lost my balance and fell backwards, Iggys hand shot out with a scary accuracy and pulled me towards my hoard of freaks. I smiled at him and I think he got the message when I told him I was smiling.

Flying really takes a lot out of a freak, I realized suddenly, what was I going to do when I needed to fly again? Would I ever get better? Would my freaks ever learn how to fly? Did I really want them to have to learn how to fly? What if they had to learn? Why was I being so jumpy? Why did we have to live like this?!

My freaks were looking at me with confused eyes, everyone was silent and it felt nice to just listen to nothing for once.

Then, Fang decided to break the nice little silence by coming up to my side and placing a hand on my wing. Explain. Was all he said in a low voice but I knew what he meant immediately.

I turned to him and started to remember how I did it, how had I done it in the first place? It had just seemed to natural at the time, like I was supposed to know how to do it without thinking. Then, it suddenly was flowing from my exhausted lips in an animated way. Like I loved flying, which I figured with a shock, even though it took a lot out of me, I loved the thrill of it, or maybe that was just the adrenaline of near death situations? Either way.

I just pump my wings really fast and, I think it might help if you guys jump off of something before- My explanation was cut off quickly by a crying Angel who was sending weird thoughts to all of us.

__

Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead, dea-

She was in Jebs arms and he seemed to be panicking again, Nudge quickly went over and grabbed her for me. Then started to rock her in the way that the books Jeb had read to us said we should. It worked for a moment and the thoughts stopped, but after that, we decided, it was definitely time to call it a day. Whatever that really meant, I wasnt sure anymore.

As we packed up for the hike back to the building, Jeb called it home, but I preferred not to, I looked over the ledge and saw the remains of the monster floating down the river, suddenly, Fang was there, watching with me.

I feel sorry for it. I murmured truthfully, Fang looked surprised for a second before giving me a questioning look. I crouched down and stared down at the dead monster, third thing I had killed in my whole life. Fang did the same, crouching next to me cautiously.

How do you mean? He asked in an equally low voice, the rumble of my other freaks packing up the food we had brought with us seemed to slide away as I looked over at Fang and smile sadly.

It was the mother of the other monster I killed. It was just trying to get revenge for what I did on the nearest thing it found. I would do that for you guys, maybe even Jeb. I answered looking directing into Fangs confused and yet understanding eyes.

Yeah, same. He said after a second of thinking. Then he did something un-Fang-ish he leaned over, hugged me for a moment, then got up and walked over to Jeb to help with the folding of the lawn chair. I smiled and got up as well, looking down at the river once more, to see the damage I had caused. I was a cold blooded murderer, did I deserve to live?

I really didnt know anymore.

**__**

(((Chapter End)))

Ok, better then my last chapter, Im sure. Im trying not to time jump too much, this isnt that kind of fic, but the jump was needed so they could be more comfortable with Jeb and the mountains. Just tellin yall.

So sorry about the nonpostage last night, when I get my own laptop, this will be a whole lot easier, trust me.

I would like to have a special shout out to Goldie and Randomanimallover, who have both showed support through out my sucky chapters and lack of postage, love you guys! So Ill post again latter if I can. Trust me, I want to, I have ahuge idea for whats gonna happen next chapter, so cross your fingers and hope my moms in a good mood!

Siy Rowling?


	10. Crying

__

All right, Im making good on my promise and I know no one has reviewed for my last chapter yet, but Im starting this anyway and dedicating this chapter to Goldie, youve been so awesome I just want to hug you. Anyway, thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far and for this chapter, to continue I need two reviews.

Thanks Goldie, the only one to review for last chappie. O.o And to think, I used to get seven reviews in one chapter. -Sigh- ok, Ill deal. Here we go.

Now, one with the story.

Siy Rowling?

(((Chapter Ten)))

****

Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peak, Back Woods: 3:09 PM, 2003

(Maximum P.O.V)

After learning to fly I should have felt better, right? I should feel free and happy and rub it in everyones face that I was better at something than them, right? But as we drove back to the building that we were staying in, I didnt feel like doing any of that crap. I felt like sleeping on my mattress, -still learning- and just laying there until whenever the heck I felt like it.

But with a guardian like Jeb, it was impossible. He woke us p almost as early as the School did, and he did random stuff with us, sometimes it was fun, sometimes not so much. Either way, I was getting used to him and so were my freaks and that was all that mattered. We were all in our usual place in the back of Jebs new car?

I still wasnt sure about that word, it was kind of hard to say but easy to remember. The new car, -ugh- was not as big, but I liked it a lot more, there used to be seats in the back, but me and my freaks thought it was too much of a tight squeeze so I had to start sitting in the front seat with Jeb. It was funny hearing him murmur weird words that he said I couldnt repeat. It was even funnier seeing his face the first time I told him I already knew half of the words from the wolf men.

After a while, I had developed this thing where I stared into space for a long time and ignored everyone, where I was completely out of it without even being asleep. Jeb didnt usually notice, I didnt like being sucked from my real world life that was flashing red alert lights from all of the random monster attacks.

But as the darkening forest whooshed by, I was spacing out again. I had been doing it a lot lately and my freaks were starting to notice, it was like I was just talking to myself in my own little world. Like everything made sense, I liked my world. But every time I came out of my world, I had no clue what I had been thinking, Angel was starting to cry when I came back so I tried to be a subtle as possible when I slipped into the darkness of my mind.

__

Something is wrong.

Thats not my voice.

Look around, something is not right.

Youre not me.

No, but you have to trust me.

Youre in my head. How are you in my head?

Look out the window.

What are you doing to me?

Just look, there is something important.

Why should I listen to you? Why cant you just leave me alone?!

Look out the window. . . Quickly.

Why are you inside of me?

Look out the window. . . NOW.

Why are you here? What are you doing?

Maximum QUICKLY!

My world was shattered and my head jerked to the window without my telling it. Oh. . . Crap.

I realized, I didnt know why I had even looked out the window in the first place, then that slid off and I was screaming for Jeb to skid to the side, pull over, drive faster, anything other than stay the same. Why? Well, you would probably do the same when a huge monster type thing was hurtling towards your car at a really fast speed.

When Jeb couldnt react fast enough, I took it into my own hands.

I knew I was faster than Jeb so I knocked his hands for the wheel after unbuckling my seat belt, and then I swung the wheel to the right, so we skidded with a kind of, **_Kazzzzzzzz, _**almost like a sizzling. I shivered and then saw the blur of black fly past us, -not literally- Jeb was still in shock, and I wasnt planning on getting crushed by another monster, but I didnt plan on killing anyone else. I swore I wouldnt. I swore. So I pushed down on Jebs leg and we zoomed forward, the monster was left far behind.

I went into shock quickly after Jeb took the wheel again and started to speed down the dirt trail that not many people used anymore. I slumped back in my seat and stared out the window again. I was about to slip back into my world, the whole car silent, until Gasman let one rip.

Yep, he did it in a closed space, and over the past few weeks, with all of the new food we had been eating, his gas had been worse than ever, back at the School, the nutrition packets had only allowed him to have a limited amount of. . . Well, you know. And then, the second he tasted eggs for the first time, we steered clear of him. . . A lot more than usual. Iggy seemed to find it funny sometimes, so did I though I really wasnt sure of Fang, but I knew Nudge hated it with a capital H.

So when that little bomb was dropped, we opened the windows and huddled away from him as much as possible, he cackled his little four year old cackle that let us know he was having fun with our pain. I glared at him, or at least I tried to. He was just so dang cute it was hard to focus on the bad tuff he did when I was looking at him. When I was looking away, now that was a different story completely.

Jeb seemed to choke on his own spit and I grinned. We were all together and ok, no matter how many crazy animals followed us around, we were happy. So I was happy. I had learned how to fly. . . . Kind of. . . Maybe. . . Not really, but you get the idea. And as I hung my head out the window, I felt someone plop in the leather seat next to me. Looking over, my smile became bigger as Iggy shoved his head out the window too.

Hey Igs. I whispered, kind of out of breath, he tried to smile back at me quickly, but ended up grimacing as he breathed in the car air. I glanced behind us to see the rest of my freaks inching away from the Gasman, and they glared at Iggy for being smart enough to get to one of the only two windows that opened in the whole car before them.

Then, my world started to get sucked away from me again, I didnt remember what exactly happened, but I knew I didnt like it much, it was annoying me. My real world flashed away and I was in darkness, no light was let in by my open eyes, and I began to wonder hoe Iggy dealt with it really. It was creeping me out.

__

You didnt look in time.

I. . . WHAT?

You didnt listen to me.

Why would I? Who are you? What are you doing inside of me?

No time. Why didnt you listen to me?

I- I just, didnt want to I guess. Why would I listen to you in the first place?

Im only here to help.

What are you doing to me?

Nothing.

Why are you here?!

That is not the question Maximum.

Whats wrong with you?!

Wrong again.

. . . . . Whats wrong with me?

Right. Im not coming back for a long time Maximum, and you wont remember this, ever, just know that Im watching and that Ill help when I am needed.

I hate you.

I know. . .

And like that, I was back in my own world with a huge pain in my head. When I started to rub my head, Iggy looked at me like I was crazy. I brushed him off and thought for a second.

Wait, what had just happened?

__

Max go bye bye in head. Why Max leave?

Angel, what are you talking about?

Why Maxie sad?

Im not sad!

Maxie crying.

My hand shot to my cheek and immediately I felt the wet trickle of salty water all over my face. What had just happened. I passed it off as the wind getting in my eyes, and then, when we started to fall asleep in the back of the car, I prayed to whatever was watching over me that the were watching over my freaks too.

__

More than youll ever know Maximum. More than youll ever know.

****

(((Chapter End)))

Ok, Im ticked, so dont blame me if I get pissed cause, well, hey you guys just STOPED reviewing! The only person willing to even review was Goldie who I freaking awesome! Whoo! You rock man!

Ok, I need two reviews to continue, and I mean two guys. Ill start early so I can get out the chapter as soon as I get the reviews, just know Im disappointed but dealing with it. -cries- Lol. :D

LOVE YOU GOLDIE

Siy Rowling?


	11. Protecting

**All right, I now love all f you guys again! All hail whoever you are! Whoo! **

**So basically I got some explanations and so I'm a happy Author again. :D Now I know I skipped someone in the dedication lines, (Sorry babiixily3) now time for the chapter four dedication for this chappie. . .**

**babiixily3!!!!!!**

TA-DA! See, I gave you a chapter! I'm such an awesome rememberer! Lol. Alright, let's do this, getting pumped! (plays Rocky Music) ADRAIN! Ok, done with that, and anyone who has not seen Rocky and does not get the reference, deal with it. Just kidding.

Here you go!

Siy Rolwing?

(((Chapter Eleven)))

**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peak, The Building: 6:30 PM, 2003**

**(Maximum P.O.V)**

_Jeb was pacing, he had said we were in trouble, my first reaction to that had been the School, but apparently that wasn't it. He had called me and my freaks into the comfy room with all of the cushiony stuff that we sat on, Jeb called it a living room. But what else would it be. . . A dead _room? Either way I liked my words better so I was sticking to them. 

We had been back from the monster attack for an hour, that was what Iggy called it at least. We had all been discussing secretly, what had happened, it was what we did behind Jeb's back, and sometimes I felt bad for doing it, but he was still a White Coat. 

I would catch Jeb looking as us like they did back at the School sometimes, like when we were eating the funny stuff he made, we ate a lot more than him naturally. And when he helps us wash up for the night, I saw him staring at my wings. But mostly, it was when I hung out with Iggy and Fang, just us. We would get the chance to just sit around or play some games that Jeb showed us. And out the windows, I see him watching us, like we're just experiments and it was all a test. I hated it, but figured it was hard to break habits and that I should give him the what was the term?

_Benefit of the doubt. _I prompted briefly in my head. 

So, I did, I trusted Jeb, and he trusted us to an extent that I was happy with. That was my last thought before something flashed before my partly closed eyes, Jeb was still pacing. 

I was cross legged on the carpet, Angel in my arms and Gasman next to me, ungassed thankfully. Iggy was sitting directly behind me on the couch thing next to Nudge who looked bored, and Fang was laying on his stomach sideways in front of me. I was twitchy and annoyed, I hated when Jeb paced, it just irritated me. Being surrounded by my freaks calmed me down a little bit, not much though.

The room was large-ish maybe, I really wasn't sure, but it was open and airy and that was all I asked. There was a thing that talked and a picture popped up when you clicked the right button, but it was way too annoying for me to deal with or learn how to use. Then, Jeb began another rant. 

"Maximum, I believe that, "monster" that attacked you a couple of months back, was, in a. . . A chain. Let me explain it more simply, the animal you killed," I winced but no one noticed, "it was part of a much bigger picture, when it was killed, the mother, the animal from this afternoon, found your sent which had most likely been scattered through out the area of her cubs death." 

"Yeah, sooooow?" Nudge huffed, crossing her little creamy brown arms in a 'so what' kind of way that only she could pull off. And she was only _six! _I reached over to pat Nudges arm and glare at her slightly, telling her to be more. . What was the word?

_Respectful. _Whispered a voice I wasn't sure if it was mine, or someone else's, I had heard it before, somewhere. I wasn't sure where though really, I was jus being stupid. Then I zoned back into the rant, nit that I had missed much anyway, just Jeb talking about stuff none of us even understood. 

"-And so, basically, we might have to leave." That last line was what got me, leave? Wait. No. _What?! _But we couldn't just _leave _this was _our _place, _our _building! Heck, it was _our _lives, and I wasn't having my freaks getting uprooted again just to have to do it a million times over, I was just _not, having it! _This was our place. Ours. No one was going to scare me away because I am _the _Maximum Ride! No one scares me. Not even a stupid little monster. He wants some Max? Well, he was gonna have to bring his game face cause I wasn't going down without a fight!

And sometime during my mind rant, I had began to stand and stomp to the front of the room where Jeb stood, I glared at him and soon my mind rant was an out loud rant, and I wasn't planning on shutting up anytime soon. 

"I'm not leaving." I stated firmly, my freaks looked at me, some hopeful, some surprised, one happy. "I don't care what you guys decide, this is our building, no stupid monster is ever going to chase us away. I mean, if we can stand up to a little monster, how are we going to hide from the wolf men good?" I tried to make my point by making hand gestures, Fang smirked at them and I glared at him, stomping back to my seat and plopping down next to Iggy since Fang was being such an idiot.

Iggy leaned over and whispered something in my ear, trying not to get anyone attention as Jeb took the floor again, "Well, I couldn't see the hand stuff that Fang was describing to me, but I think you did good, with the words and stuff." He grinned in my general direction. I didn't want to interrupt Nudge as she put her two pieces in the conversation in her turn interrupting Jeb mid sentence, so I grabbed Iggy's left hand and held it to my lips, showing him silently that I was smiling. 

He grinned back even wider and then we both faced Nudge as she finished, "-And that's it, I have noting else do say, tank you. I'ma goin' back to my comf'eey seat now. Tank you'd!" And she was done. I rolled my eye, that girl was going to turn into a problem. But she was cute so most likely, she was going to get away with half of the trouble she caused. 

"Anybody else want to input?" Jeb asked, then he repeated that in simpler words so that even Gasman understood him. It was hard for Jeb, I could tell, trying to talk at our level, trying to even _think _near our level, and it would always be hard, because he didn't go through what we had to. He was just the guy who set us free, he wasn't the one who was going to teach us how to live. And he never could, well, mentally at least. That was part pf the reason my freaks were warming up to Jeb, he was trying, and that was all any of us asked. 

"No one?" Jeb asked, then Fang sat up and walked in front of everyone, suspiciously quiet. "Alright."

"No leaving for me." Was all he said, and in those four words, everyone was confident with our decision, everyone except for Jeb. He looked nervous again and awkward as we all beamed at each other happy that we had done something about the problem and then we were all ready to go to bed. But Jeb obviously wanted to talk more. The adrenaline was long gone so head just said that he would talk about it more with us at breakfast. 

And when we all slumped to our rooms, knowing it was way early and that we could stay up way longer if we wanted to, but flying and or trying to fly was tiring and we were all dead on our feet as one by one, the rooms lights went off and the whole house was dark and quiet. 

After a second, I heard a padding of bare feet hitting the wood floor and then my door opened and closed really fast, I jerked my head around and saw who it was. 

"Hey, what's up Fang?" I whispered, hoping not to wake anybody up, he looked sad and. . . Scared? Hmm. Then he came over to my mattress on stilts and pulled himself up, so that he was sitting next to me on the bed. 

"It's just, I was scared when the monster almost got you is all. And then you flew. I wish I could fly too." Fang murmured, more to himself than me, I found myself shocked. Fang, want to be like me?! That was new. Way new. 

"You'll learn. And the monster, fusssh like that thing could kill me, I think you're forgetting something." I teased him as he looked down at his lap in a gloomy way. I put an arm around his shoulder and finished my sentence with a tired smile, "I am the great invincible Maximum Ride, nothing can keep me down. Because, well. . . Um.-"

"You have me." Fang finished for me, in a quiet happy voice, and that was true, I couldn't do half of the stuff I did if I didn't have my freaks. Especially one of my best friends. Fang was just special like that. 

"Exactly, now, do you want to sleep in here tonight?" I asked sleepily rubbing my eyes and yawning right in the middle of my sentence. 

Fang didn't even think before he replied. "Yeah." And then we were both trying to get under the covers and turning in opposite directions so our backs were touching and we were comfy. 

"Night Fang." I muttered.

"G'night Max." He mumbled back.

And there was an obvious message passing between us, something unbreakable that neither of us would forget.

'_I'll be there for you. Don't worry, no matter what, I'm here.'_

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_Ok, love you guys, but I have to go to bed and upload this and do my homework, fun I know. Probably not my longest chapter but tell me what you think about it. I need two reviews to continue, so, yeah. REVIEW if you feel like it and you want another chaoter tomorrow._

_Lol. Seriously though, you are all excused from my wrath this time around so whatever, I just want two. ;D So here you go! _

_Siy Rowling?___


	12. Sorry

_My grandma died. . . _

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Twelve)))___

_**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peaks, Back Woods, The Building: 9:43 AM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

"Come, Maximum, we're having another meeting."

Ok. There it was again! Even if I was only half awake and I seriously felt cold like something warm hard had just been next to me and then it was gone, I noticed something was wrong with the way Jeb had just said that sentence. Another big fancy word?! That had to be it, I just didn't realize he was saying it or something. Right.

And then I tried to roll to the side to see what time wit was by looking out the window just above the bed, _**THUNK! **_I landed with a loud thudding sound as I hit the floor wing first. Fun. Please. . . Note my sarcasm.

Then I ended up crawling to the door and then finally hobbling into the main room with all of the cushiony stuff. My freaks were all up already, apparently I had gotten to sleep in a little, ha ha, I their faces. I knew that sounded childish and unleader-ish but sometimes I just needed to be unleader-ish. I got really tired of it, a lot. Plopping down, I grinned at Iggy and whispered that I was grinning.

"Why?" He asked in a semi-regular voice that indicated the "meeting" hadn't started yet. I shrugged a little bit and blinked to get the matter out of my eyes. Matter? Seriously. Words just kept popping into my head randomly and I was getting annoyed. What was matter anyway?! "Max? Maaa- _aaaaaa_x" Iggy's hands blindly reached for me as I spaced out again.

"Huh? Um, what?" I rasped, my throat clogging with sleepiness. Now my freaks were looking at me in a 'huh' kind of way, I gave them the same in return. What was going on again? Whoa! Was that a _bunny?!_

"Maxie being _FUNNY_!" Angel squealed, Jeb was in the food room getting some of the bitter smelling stuff. So we were alone, at least, that's what we all thought. I looked over Fang's shoulder and found my eye catching something. . . Weird. Slinging my head around, I saw nothing but the dark corner of the room. Ok, even weirder. But I shrugged that off and looked back at my freaks, they were looking at me in the 'you were saying' kind of way.

The kind I only got when I was being really loony. Ugh. I tried to concentrated and then, I was saved.

Jeb strutted through the open door and looked at our awkward positions and immediately we all straightened and looked him in the eye, levelly, I was teaching them so much! Yeah, right. Jeb fake coughed and then he began talking, cup of bitterness in his hand, he had the strained look on his face like he wasn't telling us everything, but I shrugged that off as well.

"After what has been happening recently, I have decided that you all need to learn a very important skill, to fight." He said evenly, and of cores we all stared at him in a 'whaaaat' kind of way that my freaks had been giving me. Clearing his throat again, Jeb's pale hands brought the bitterness to his lips and he took another sip of it. I shuddered, thinking how that must suck to have to drink that stuff just to wake up everyday.

"Umm. . . What does that mean?" Nudge asked in the only way Nudge could, up front. We all waited for the answer patiently. After wringing his hands a few more times, Jeb sighed heavily and plopped down in a huge chair that could fit almost all of my freaks squished together, which isn't saying much. But to us it was.

"It means," He mumbled in a muffled, 'how did I get myself into this' kind of way, "That I have to show you how to hurt other things before they hurt you."

The whole freaking room was silent, we all stared at each other. And, surprisingly, Fang was the first to talk. He stood up in front of the whole -still silent room- and he looked at all of us, then, slowly, he began. "I wanna learn so the White Coats won't get us."

And just like that, everyone broke into excited chatter. Jeb looked a little better and Fang looked embarrassed as he slid from the front of the room and back to the floor next to Gasman. Soon Jeb was trying to calm us all down by talking over us. Everyone was talking and yelling and jumping and my head was pounding and I just wanted it to _stop!_

"_Alright!__" _My voice was loud and filled with leader-ish-ness. Silence, yay. Then I was better. "We are all going to listen to Jeb now." I said calmy and then we all quieted and I sighed, it was my turn to pull a Jeb and plop down into my seat, some of that bitterness that Jeb always had. It seemed more like an eviction than anything else. Wait was that the right word? Huh? What? Oh well. The word didn't pop into my head like usual so I just shrugged it off and listened as Jeb droned on and on. Something about going outside and then finding a partner, I just figured Iggy would tell me when Jeb was done.

Then we were moving, leaving out the back glass door and we were all excited again. Fun. I had no clue what was going on or what I was supposed do be doing or anything. Should the little freaks even be learning how to fight yet? They're so young! But, I had learned how to fight at about Gamans age, so maybe they needed to know too. Hmmm. Something to ponder when Jeb wasn't calling my name.

"Maximum will help me demonstrate. Since you are most experienced." He cleared his throat, and I realized what he was wearing. Sweat pants, and a T-shirt, both white. I had to laugh at that. Anything white, I vaguely wondered what he would look like in black before his fist flew past my head. Crap, he was serious. "Come now Maximum, try your hardest. I will."

And then it was just me and Jeb, face to face, and anger bubbled inside of me like fire, he was one of the White Coats, well, he was going to pay for what they had done to all of us. If he was the on White Coat I would ever see again, I wasn't going to waste my chance. I jumped to the side and glared at him with hard eyes. That evil. . . What had the wolf men called him behind his back? A bastard! That was it. That felt good to call him names even if it was just in my head.

I ducked and realized he was throwing all of the punches, not for long. As I ducked, my leg flew out and kicked the former White Coat hard in the back of the knees. Take that School. As he fell it all slowed and I was the only thing moving at a normal speed. _**Thunk **_Right in the head. _**Cluush. **_He hit the grass padded ground hard. Joy sprouted into my stomach. Ha. And then I was about to throw the last punch, just like that, I was about to kill him. _Kill! _I was going to kill the man who saved me. It was a natural instinct.

Falling to my knees next to a half asleep Jeb, I stared at him, and then at my hands, what had I done? What had I become? Was I serious that much an animal. I wanted to cry and scream and actually kill Jeb and maybe even sleep a little, but none of that happened, I just sat frozen, just staring as Jeb groaned and looked at me in complete shock.

"But you. And Ari. And. . . I mean,-" He coughed a little, "That was great Maximum, you're a fast learner!" And then Fang and Nudge were helping Jeb up and Jeb was pairing us into groups.

"Alright, you saw how Maximum did it, I want you all to um. . . " He coughed again, "Try to win at all costs. I'll travel around to the groups and see who needs help with their, ah, technique. Now since Iggy is blind, you'll be paired with Gasman, I want you to use your hearing more so than anything, try and block all of his attacks before you throw any yourself, Nudge you and me will have to works something out until Angel is able to fight herself and since you two are the oldest, Max and Fang will be partners for now. Spread out and begin." And like that, my freaks, _my _freaks, were just hitting and kicking and I wanted it to stop and I wanted them to have a different life and I wanted a different life and I wanted to take it out on someone.

The first someone that came to mind happened to be my fabulous partner, "Fang." I hissed as I pushed myself off of the ground. Him. He was te one that had been left behind! He had caused me to be captured by the beast! The one that made me a murderer two times over! I hated him! _Hate! _He needed to die! If he was gone, everything would be ok! I hate hate hate _HATE _him. Ugh.

I pounced on him, grabbing a fist full of his dark and I started to wail on the unsuspecting eight year old. He deserved it! I think he realized what was going on because he was trying to detach me from himself rather than punch me back. That didn't help much why wouldn't he fight? I wanted to fight!

Suddenly, I was thrown to the ground with Fang looming over me with worried eyes. Why would he care? I hated him! He should hate me back or it's not as fun. I jumped up and growled.

"Come on, scared of a female?!" I screamed in his face, a surprised look crossed his pale features but he seemed to stay completely calm. Why wouldn't he show emotion?! God! I hated him. He backed away a couple of steps, I moved forward a couple of steps. He wasn't getting away that easily.

"Max." He said in a warning voice, so he was bossing me around now? Nu uh! I was the leader of my freaks, he wasn't going to stop that. I glared at him my best, 'I'm-gonna-rip-out-your-throat' look, Fang looked even more surprised than I felt. And then, I was wondering why I was hating Fang so much and why Jeb had made me angry and why I was being such an evil person? Why was I thinking like a murderer?

It bubbled to my lips before I could stop it, "I _hate _you!"

And then it all clicked, I acted that way, because that was all I knew. I hated it but it was true. I had a couple of emotions that got pulled out more often than not. One, protectiveness. Two anger. And three, love. All for my freaks of cores. I didn't know how to act when everything was going wrong and I didn't have some control o anything. Heave help me. Or that was what Jeb said when he got all frustrated.

"Maxie! No be mean to Fa-aang." Angel gurgled. I spun around and looked at my little freak. She was right. I shouldn't take it out on Fang, or Jeb or anybody else, it was my problem, not theirs, so I vowed from that moment on, that I would never hurt my freaks like that again. Never.

"S'okay Angel, we're good. I'm sorry? Will you forgive me Fang?" I muttered. He glared at me in a way that let me know I had put him on the spot oops. I shifted from my fighting position and I looked at him with a pleading kind of 'I'm-so-sorry-dude.' look.

"Yeah, you didn't mean it." He said darkly, I glanced over my shoulder at him and winced he had a look on his face that I could never misread.

It was the '_You're in a butt load of trouble when I get you alone Max.' _Look that I would only let Fang or Iggy give me. Aw crap.

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_I did my best, but I had to go to the funeral. Sorry it took me so long, I'll try harder next time. I guess two reviews or something._

_Siy Rowling?_


	13. The Prey

_Ok, I needed a little bit of time to myself ya'll know why too. So I won't say it. I'll just type and you read and review, I would like all of my old readers to come back and review again because I'm feeling kinda lonely. Lol. :D JK! But seriously, sorry about not updating in forever, but you know why if you read the author notes in the beginning. _

_I love you guys really, I'm just having a hard time because me and my grams were really close. _

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Thirteen)))_

_**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peak, Backwoods, The Building: 6:09 PM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

"Alright," Jeb began, everyone looked up at him in a 'huh?' kind of way, "I would like to tell you all that you did wonderfully today with your first hand to hand combat lesson. . . Fighting lesson I mean."

We all stayed silent before Nudge started asking how awesome she looked when she was fighting. Though she pronounced it different. We were all in the kitchen drinking gallons and gallons of water in clear plastic bottles, -I think; maybe it was cups?- Jeb seemed to finally realize how much we ate because he cooked more at feeding times. -he called them breakfast, lunch and dinner-

I was sitting next to Iggy and the Gasman. The Gasman had recently learned two new words, since he wasn't as far as his sister with the whole talking thing, it was a step up from before.

So when we didn't get any food, I was kind of ticked off. "I have decided that your next lesson will be patience." Jeb declared with a scared look. "And to learn that, you'll all be fasting." Probably not the best idea on Jeb's half, Nudge jumped from her chair and started to yell how unfair not being able to eat was and that she was really hungry.

I was probably thinking all of the same stuff Nudge yelled, but I didn't word it. Instead, I decided it was time to put my leader-ish type skills into the mix. "Nudge, Jeb probably knows what he's doing, so yeah, let's just let him explain everything before you start screaming again, ok honey?" Where had I learned that last word? Why the talking box Jeb called a T.V. of cores! The females that were in control of the family usually said it so it seemed appropriate. At least it shut Nudge up for a while!

"Thank you Maximum," There it was again! There always seemed to be something wrong with the stuff Jeb said when he said my name. It was just a nagging feeling in the back of my little freak mind but it was still there, "Now it will only be for a few days, you will all live, but you'll be very hungry, and if you try to sneak food, there will be consciences."

We were all silent again before I broke out of deep thought, I hadn't been listening to a word Jeb had just said, _bad tings happen when Maxie eat! _Angel supplied helpfully, oh, that works. Looking around I found everyone kind of uncomfortably shifting in their seats, waiting for me to say something. Ummm, "Cool?" That worked too!

"Cool?" Jeb asked right back in a 'what?' kind of way that made me roll my eyes. \

"Yeah, suuure. Whatever, when does this 'fasting' thing start?" I asked in bored, 'bring it' tone that I didn't do often, Iggy blindly glanced at me kind of in the way he always did when he knew something was wrong. How did he do it? I wasn't exactly sure.

"Well, right. . . Now, would be good?" It was more of a question, he really needed to work on his leader-ish skills, he seemed more like a Fang to me, the non-talk-ish kind of person/thing if you could even call an ex White Coat a person.

"Umm. . . What do you guys thi-" A crash of pure clear glass being shattered and falling to the floor, wooden floor, our building, a growl coming from the living room, oh. . . Crap.

We all jumped up, ready to run or try and fly or whatever. And then I knew exactly what had come. It was the female killers mate, -Jeb called it that in the new van- Jeb was so shocked, his big fat butt was glued to the plastic seat he was sitting on in the corner. Angel gurgled in surprise in his lap and everyone else started for the living room. I was right behind them. Hey I was curious too! And we had all decided that we weren't going to run, one day's training probably hadn't been enough for squat but we would try, I could see it in my freaks eyes, we would all try.

Apparently, Jeb came out of shock, because he also ran out of the kitchen with us, shouting orders, only, they weren't the orders we wanted, they were crappy orders telling us to run away and let him take care of it by himself. Phfffft. Yeah right. I barked orders right over his non important ones, and I let my freaks decide who they wanted to listen to.

"Alright, circle him, but don't get too close!" I declared, and all of my freaks listened to me, the big monster was red and black, kind of like the mix of the trees that surrounded the area. Like he was meant to blend. He was created that way. Who had created him? Had he been like us? Failed experiments?! That could be a reason why he was hurting us.

Then something broke into my mind, it hurt, so bad I wanted to cry, which Maximum Ride does not do. So I just listened as it tore through a kind of wall. A cracking echoed through out my brain as the final protection against it tore into interlocking brain. It was locked? By who? I didn't know how to lock my mind. I didn't even know what interlocking meant! I hated my life with a passion.

'_Maximum!' _It breathed in a non voice type of way.

'_Maximum, you have to run, something is going to happen, someth-'_

What? Wait, what had just happened? I couldn't remember. Oh, right. I had this sudden deep seeded fear that something horrible was going to happen and I needed to get my freaks out of there. And I wanted to listen to the feeling, but I had promised not to run. I had promised my freaks and Jeb I would stand and fight. But it was so hard to resist the urge to run for my life, I had to, it didn't matter anymore, I had to run, so I took it as an instinct and remembered what Jeb had told me about them. He had said to always listen to them because they were usually right. So that was that.

"get away from that thing! Quick!" I grabbed Nudge and Iggy by the shoulders because they were the closest to me and started to run, Fang, Gasman and Jeb seemed pretty confused as I ran. The monster followed me. Wait. It followed me. Then that meant. . .

I threw Nudge and Iggy down and ran down a random hallway of the old cabin thing. It romped after me like Gasman chasing sausage. Good. I ran and I heard it close behind me, pure heat pulsed through my body, keeping me quick on my feet. But what I didn't count on was the fact that I was running straight for a dead end.

As I skidded to a halt, the monster didn't stop, it pounced.

I felt a sense that this had happened before as the monster growled and pinned me down to the cold hard floor. Breathing heavily, I checked if I was still alive, since it wasn't obvious. I guessed I was. I checked if I was sane. Yep. I was an idiot. Struggling a little, I was able to turn myself do my back was on the ground. I looked head on into the blood thirsty eyes of a wild animal.

Did I mention that I hated my life?

The monsters intent was clear.

_You kill mine, I kill you. _

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_There we go, better and shorter than most of my chapters, I would like to thank all of you guys for reviewing and reading, you guys are awesome. I might be a little before I update like, I might update really late at night tonight if I feel up to it kk? _

_I hope you guys liked it! I need three reviews, next chapter I'll probably go back to tywo because, you know, I'm curious if you guys really want me to update, cause I love this story a lot. So. . . Yeah. _

_Siy Rowling?_


	14. Live

_I'm sorry my updates are shorter than usual, but I'm updating secretly seriously my life is in danger if I get caught here. -gulp- jk. But I will be in a butt load of trouble. ;) All for you guys! I didn't get three reviews which made me sad, but I'll dael with it and as soon as I get better from the Swine Flu, it'll all be good. Yeah, I have the Swine Flu that's what killed my Grandma too. _

_I know stupid right? So. . . Here we go. . . I dedicate this chapter to. . . . _

_**GOLDIE!**_

_Dude, you're so freaking awesome for reviewing for every singke freaking chapter that I've posted!!!! O.o I would love for all of my old reviewers to come back so I can update sooner. :D _

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Fourteen)))_

_**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peaks, Backwoods, The Building: 6:32 PM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

"_**AROOUL!" **_The monster yowled as something jumped onto its back with something sharp. How did I know that? It was sticking out of the other side of the monsters stomach. Taking my chance, my body seemed to act immediately, arms releasing themselves, hands reaching for the one weakness I could find, but this monster was smarter than the other one.

It bucked whoever it was from it's back and then found my hands before they found its eyes. I screamed as its teeth bore into my small, still weak hands. Wait, why were my hands weak? Maybe that was why Jeb wanted us to fast. When we didn't eat we got really weak quickly. Well, sucked for me!

The monsters head jerked side to side never letting my hands go. I tried to hold back another scream, that didn't work either. After hearing a bone crunch and feeling the veins in my right hand rip open, someone pounced on the side of the monster with all of their weight. It tipped like one of those cows on TV ha. The not funny part of that, it still didn't let go of me. I ended up laying/ dangling from the side of the monsters mouth, jerking around, I saw my best friend.

"Iggy what are you doing?!" I yelled over the ruckus coming from the living room. Wait, ruckus? I was kinda lost but I focused on Iggy. He jumped on the monster the best he could and pound on it with little fists, if I hadn't been bleeding to death, I would have laughed at the blind kid trying to beat up a monster.

"Get away from that thing! Iggy!" Jeb called as the monster bucked Iggy off and he hit the wall again. That had to hurt. Not more than the fact that the beast still had me by the hands but whatever.

Then, the monster dropped me, growling, the pain from my hand was still unbearable, so I couldn't use my hands. I had to defend myself somehow. So I used my head. Literally. As the monsters huge jaw came down to crush my neck, I head butted the stupid thing in the forehead. It yowled and backed away, then I came with a back up attack. Jumping up, I glanced to see if Jeb had dragged Iggy away, he had. Good. I bounced on the balls of my feet and let my leg snap out as quickly as a wolf mans, maybe faster.

What had happened to the wolf men? Were they looking for us? Were they goping to find us? What if the School found us again. Would Jeb just let us go back?

The beasts head snapped back and it gurgled on its own blood for a moment before regaining its fighting stance. But that moment it had taken had given me enough time to crawl under it and then dash back down the hallway. It jerked around and began to chase me again. Fine, let it. I just ran faster down the too long hallway.

Breathing heavily, I felt like screaming. What was going on? The thump of the big thing in my chest called a heart thrashed in my ears and I felt like I wasn't even on the earth anymore. I felt like Ear Boy. . . Dead. Yeah, that was weird. Feeling dead. But kind of good in a way, like I didn't have to worry about the blood gushing from my shredded hands or the fact that I was being chased by a monster who wanted to kill me or that I was going to really die in a few seconds.

Everything sped back up and this time I was gasping for breath.

After a second of complete silence, I heard the loud crashing footsteps of Jeb as he romped down the hallway in my direction and then, his voice was full of the leadership I knew he should have in it all along, "_**GET DOWN MAXIMUM!"**_

And then I was diving under loud noises that Jeb made shoot out of a grey and black tube with a trigger, the same one he had used on Yulanda. The monster took all of the shots but kept its chase, and since I wasn't moving under the noises, I was a sitting duck, just great. I began to crawl the way Jeb had taught me one day before we had started flying training. He had called it an army crawl. What was an army anyway?

"Ahh-_hhhhhhh!" _A high pitched scream filled the quiet house as Nudge fell down next to me. What had just happened? Jeb stopped shooting. Nudge screamed again. The monster fell to the ground not two paces away from me and my freak. Her half unfurled wing was bleeding so badly I didn't know what to do. And then, I realized what had happened.

The monster was dead, Nudge was hurt. Because of Jeb. It was his fault, he had used that thing on Yulanda. Yulanda hadn't come after us because she was dead. The end of the chain had come. I had killed the mother monster and the baby monster, so now the father monster came after me to avenge his freaks. I would do the same for my freaks too. I couldn't blame the father monster.

All I had to blame was myself. Well. . . That sucked. It sucked so bad, a little tid bit of my brain shut off, the part where I had doubts about how good people were. I immediately had to be on guard. Yulanda was going to kill us, and Jeb had saved us. But he had hurt Nudge and forgotten Fang. How could I trust him? How could I ever trust him with my freaks if I couldn't even trust him with myself? What was I going to do if Jeb ended up being an evil White Coat? And then I knew the sad truth. I would have to kill him too.

So I tucked that away in my brain. Away from my thoughts, away from Angel, even away from my own subconscious. No one could know what I was willing to do for my freaks, no one could even know what I was going to do then. Everything was going to be a secret as of then. I had to even hide it from myself. Because I didn't need it then.

"Maxie, Nudge cry!" Angel whined from the Gasman's arms. Well at least someone was taking care of her when I couldn't. Looking around, I saw the whole building trashed. It was like a natural disaster had gone through it like a mad man. That was what a doctor guy on a TV show had said at least once. So I figured it fit.

I fell back on my back and then, I let my whole body rack up how much damage was done. I didn't know where Fang was, Jeb had just hurt Nudge, I was going to bleed to death, and over all, I felt like a piece of crap. That was just great. Well-

"_Ma-XIE!" _Angel cried, pulling me from my tangled thoughts. Huh? What had I just been thinking about?

"Oh dear. Nudge, are you alright? I'm afraid I may have hurt you." Jeb said in his scientist-y voice. I didn't like it.

"Where's Fang?" I huffed, still laying back down on the floor, everyone turned to me. Iggy had taken to my side along with the Gasman and Angel. There was a silence before the Gasman awed in connection.

"Living room!" He cooed proudly. I felt like jumping top my feet and checking on him but I wasn't up to it, so Jeb did it for us. Eventually he came back carrying an injured Fang. He had a long angry red line where the monster slashed him across the chest. Oops, that had been when I was spacing out again.

Soon, Jeb had brought his black bag and shooed the little freaks and Iggy away so that he could check on us one by one. Nudge cried about how much her wing hurt. Jeb examined her first. He said that the bullet had gone through the wing and that, that was good. Whatever that meant, He bandaged her up and let her go lay down in her and Angels room. Then he checked Fang, he said it had already started to scab over and Fang was fine. So after wrapping the white cottony stuff around Fang, Jeb moved on to me.

I had begun to get dizzy and right in the middle of his checkup with me, I fell asleep despite Jeb's protests.

A thought that wasn't mine drifted into my head, the strange thing was, it wasn't Angels either.

_Learn to live Maximum, learn to live._

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_So that's it for this chapter, I hope you guys enjoyed it! :D Thanks and I need two reviews to continue but I'm always up from more reviews. ;) not to sound greedy or anything. Lol._

_Siy Rowling?_


	15. Traitor

_One review. . . Thanks. Please note my sarcasm. But whatever. . . Ok, so I'm updating anyway because at least some people are awesome, jk, you're all awesome, thanks for all of the hits last chapter by the way. If I can't get reviews at least I get hits! Whoop whoop! Yay. Hooray. Whoopie. Skippie Doodle! _

_Ummmm. . . . ._

_Ok done with that now. If I could just get a couple of my old reviewers back, I'd love it and I promise, that's the end of the whole "monster" thing. They have a purpose! Dun dun duuuun. I know right? I'm not as stupid or bad a writer as I seem! -gaspage-_

_I hope you guys can catch up with my mind cause I'm not sure if you'll get the whole plot so just tell me in your review if you think I should try this from someone elses P.O.V just so you can understand it better, but I thought the whole Max P.O.V would be best for now but your input is always appreciated! Ok. . . Was that just one long sentence?! O.o wooooow. Ok, here we go. . . . . . . _

_This chapter is going to get confusing so buckle up!_

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Fifteen)))_

_**California, The Road : 6:23 AM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

A dream, it had to be a dream.

We went over another pot hole, a swelling bubble seemed to pop in my chest. It was a dream. A stupid dream. It couldn't really be happening. And then I knew it was, the wolf men leered at me and Jeb took control.

"Do not damage the luggage Reg." Jeb murmured to the wolf man. That, that, that,

"You _BASTARD!_" I screamed, the wolf men howled with laughter as Jeb emotionlessly popped open the trunk of the van so the wolf men to gag and tie me with thick hard ropes that I knew I couldn't break, we had already been fasting for a week and a half, I was starving but surprisingly, Angel and not so surprisingly, Fang seemed to be the best at fasting so far, they didn't complain much. Well, Fang really didn't talk that much in the first place but.

Anyway. I thrashed as one of the wolf men who I recognized as the one that stood in front of our room at the other School. So obviously, there was more than one School, because, wait, I was back at the School? Either way it was the School?! Why couldn't I ust stop and breathe? I started to breathe in and out really fast and the world began to spin around me in circles becoming fuzzy.

The wolf men grabbed me, I still fought back even though they ere way stronger than me. They barked at each other like the Floppy Eared experiments that were terminated just a week before we left the School the first time.

Jeb had woken me before the sun even had a chance to touch the sky, he had said it was important and not to make a sound. So I had trusted him, and I had just went a long with him, even after I became suspicious. When he had started the van, I had just gotten into the back like he told me, and I had left my freaks behind. All of them. And now they were sitting ducks. Ugh. Sometimes I hated myself. A lot.

I saw as they leered at me, how could I have been so stupid?! I had trusted a White Coat. A stupid White Coat. I never would ever again. Jeb grabbed me by the arm and dragged me inside of the new School, well new for me at least.

Everything was almost exactly the same, I could gather that even if I was struggling as hard a sa deprived of food freak could struggle. The white walls. Dirty and bloodied faces of failed and almost failed experiments looking up at me as I kicked and tried to scream and maybe swear some more. Is that what Jeb called it? Swearing? Either way, it didn't matter anymore. Jeb was a traitor.

And he made me a murderer. I realized quickly what The Building had really been. Not a place of freedom and hiding, safe from the School and the world outside. No. The Building had just been another test. Why were they doing this to us? I could deal with it if it was just me, but why my freaks? Why did they have to dangle our dream in front of us and then yank it away? Just like that, everything was gone, the monsters deaths were for nothing, and I felt like a fresh piece of Gasman crap.

Probably not the best thing to compare me to, but as my heart sank, my protest became less and less until I was just laying limp in Reg's arms. Well more like paws, but either way. . .

Soon, Reg had been escorted to the room. The very same room I had been in the last time I had been here. Why couldn't I just die and get it over with?! Wait. . . I'm not the one who needed to die. Jeb was. He had caused all of this. It was Jeb's fault. We had made a deal. And that had been going fine until that women. And then I couldn't remember anything! There was a test, something went wrong, and then there was a women. Man, what the heck was going on?

I was suddenly dropped onto a hard rubber like chair that went back and forth when the White Coats made it. Jerking my head around, I found my surroundings surprising. The walls were black. Completely black. That was new. And kind of Fang-ish. Hmm. The room was dark too. Like light wasn't allowed in it. Not that the School was about the whole windows and open doors thing in the first place but this was new.

And then, something else new happened, after Reg strapped me down to the seat and a White Coat who I didn't recognize put some kind of heavy vest on my chest and then. . . They all just kind of left. The lights turned off. . . I was alone in complete darkness. What? Ok. . . What was-

I was interrupted in my thoughts as there was a loud voice booming through out the darkness, it had kind of a robotic tinge to it, but I figured that was just the microphone.

I quieted the rushing nightmares and ideas that were popping into my head left and right so that I could listen to the seemingly privet conversation.

"So, since I'm not farmilliar with des particular subject und our filing system is not de best," A thick voice that I didn't understand began, it seemed to have some kind of accent. . . Like Nudge and Yulanda!, "I vould like do take a ex-ray of de arm area, yha? Und I vould like to see de subjects tolerancey for de fasting so faar."

Huh? I struggled to see anything, there wasn't even enough light in the room for me to even see my hands that were tied to the arms of the rubber chair. I shifted and I felt as the heavy thing moved exactly with me like glue. Ugh. And then, I started to get a tooth ache.

Fun.

"Of corse," Jebs voice replied a bit muffled by his farness from the speaker. What were they talking about? "But we do have some percautions. Maximum will not remember any of these little visits and the other members of her flock will not kow of this either. After Anne Walker purposed this idea to us last minute, it was a bit late to plan and all that. So Go ahead but just keep in mind, she is behaving like a human child. More so than other experiments."

"Ahhh, dey all re animal on de insides! Now, let us begin de ex-ray." And then there was a light on above my head and I started to squirm again. "Experiment Nine-O-Three-Four, cease movement immediately!" Barked the accented voice again.

Was he talking to me? He was seriously bossing me around? The leader of my freaks? You can't just do that! I am Maximum Ride and I will not stand for it!

"My name is Maximum Ride, dumbass." I was starting to like that word, there was silence for a second before the speaker came on again.

"Max-hih-mum Ride? Is dis de name vu have geven you're self?" Asked the voice hesitantly, I didn't miss a beat, answering immediately.

"Yeah, sure _whatever! _God. Now who the heck are you?" I tried to polite. . . Not. He was getting on my nerves calling me an experiment. I was a human! Jeb had at least taught me that during our time in the building. And I didn't deserve being called an experiment.

"Ductor Batcheler, I do not believe dat you ave ralley updated me on da learning skillz of or patent, so pleaze enlighten me." The voice sounded annoyed, good. The more annoyed and angry I could get those stupid White Coats, the better. They didn't deserve to know what I knew. And god I knew so much more than they thought. I knew death, I knew life, heck I've even been in limbo!

"Well, Maximum is very advanced for her age, as her records show, she was created originally to essentially be the body guard for my son, Ari in the By Half plan. But due to some complications, their roles were changed. Maximum is now the leader of her flock and the second oldest, they call him Fang, is her body guard. The blind one is learning exceptionally and the youngest is quite. . . Um. . . Gifted? I suppose you could say." Jeb's laying traitor voice drawled in a science-y voice that I had come to hate with my whole being.

Next time I saw him and my feet weren't tied together with tape, he was going down. No matter what. He was the one that needed to be killed. The blood of Ear Boy and all of those monsters, were on his evil meaty hands. Hate wasn't a new thing for me.

"Vell, I see there is a problem vith de mouth on Max-hih-mum." Replied the voice dryly.

I already hated him, no matter what, I would hate him. If it even was a him. Was it a him? I was getting off topic. I heard a rustling of papers and then it clicked, they had said something about an Ari. There was a little kid in the lab sometimes. They called him Ari, and they said I was supposed to protect him. Why would I do that? He was Jeb's son. That was what everyone said at least as he watched with strangely curious eyes.

I hated him too.

"I have brought some of Maximum's past test results. It explains why she is, well, basically what she is." I felt like screaming at him. I am what I am because I'm me! I'm Maximum Ride, the one and only. There was no changing that. Or was there?

The White Coats had changed Iggy so suddenly. Without even a second thought. Before his blindness, he had been cocky and scarred. Now he was just scarred, but I could still see some of the old Iggy coming back as the days passed peacefully. Well, peacefully enough for us. That meant no monster attacks for a whole week. . . Or day.

"Fascinating." he voice murmured. "Now, ve vill check to see if she as progressed. With de chip."

And then all at once, there was a bright flash, I didn't have enough time to squirm and then my arm started to tingle. My left arm. Tingling. Silence. And then a fire-y hot shooting pain took over my arm and caused me to topple over in the chair. The restraints becoming nothing but tape attached to both my arms and the arms of the chair. The heavy vest fell with me, and when I was on my hands and knees with the vest laying on the ground under me, I knew for sure that it was the White Coat's fault I was dieing.

It hurt more than I could ever imagine, I tried to hold back my whimpers as the pain traveled up my arm and then to my shoulder, slithering up my arm until it hit my neck, it stayed there for a long time before, like a snake, it struck hard and fast. I brain exploded. I elt like mush on the floor, screaming in pain, tears streaming down my cheeks in useless lines. My arms no longer held me up and I was withering on the ground.

I noticed only vaguely the lights turning off and the hair in my face started to cling to the sweat that was beading on my entire body. Screaming that didn't seem like mine but I knew for fact that it was, floated around me and suddenly, I didn't care. I didn't care that I was dieing!

Wait. . . Was I dieing? Were they terminating me? If they were. . . God. There is so much that I hadn't done. I hadn't told my freaks to look out for each other. I hadn't made sure Angel knew she was my baby. I hadn't killed Jeb. Heck, I hadn't killed Fang for being a smart aleck earlier that week. Before the monsters. After the flying training. And it hurt to know that I wouldn't see them again.

That was probably the only things I knew. Pain. Hurt. Betrayal. That was just about it! Wow. . . My life sucked. . . A lot. It wasn't like the shows I had seen on the TV where everything was perfect and black and white. Or like the other show that I watched where big men and women get hand cuffed, but that was completely off the topic. Basically, I knew, life wasn't supposed to be like this, and something was wrong with the way we -my freaks and I- had to live. In fear. Never knowing if we were going to be safe.

I had never told Fang that I didn't hate him!

He was going to hate _me _forever. I had beaten him up and never said sorry. I had let him think I really hated him when really I hated myself. How could I have been so stupid? I should have taken it all out on Jeb. The stupid dumb ass!

But I wasn't going to get to tell them about what I had seen or felt. What was important. I was a murderer, did I deserve to die? I had taken four lives in counting. Not a regular person would have had to do that. Why did I? Why did my freaks? I hate Jeb. I hate the School. . . But most of all. . .

I hated myself.

And as the pain over took me and I began to fade into a complicated nothing, I heard the voice of Jeb hiss through the loud speaker on accident again.

"She won't remember _a thing_."

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_Ok, probably one of my ok chapters. SO REVIEW! It took extra long because I was reworking the plot so it ran more smoothly. I have a fuzzy picture of what's going to happen now so it works up to the books and some of your questions about why the characters are who they are, are answered. _

_Soo. . . Yeah, I need two reviews to continue, thanks to all of you guys who have come back and love you all who have just begun reviewing! Whoop whoop. Sorry, it's just a habit to whoop. Lol. _

_Love ya'll! You guys are so awesome. Umm. . . Praise, praise, awesome, monkey, monkey underpants! Well. . . That's just how my brain works. -sigh- I feel sorry for my friends. Lol. So yeah, review and um.. . All that regular crap writers are supposed to say or whatever. _

_Siy Rowling?_


	16. The Lost

_Did you know that when you have Swine Flu they quarentine you for FOUR FREAKIN DAYS?!?!?!!? And then they're all, on yeah, that's great it's all gone! "NOW GO BACK TO SCHOOL" Fun right? WRONG! Ugh. _

_ANYWAY! I know last chapter was majorly confusing and astonishing and all of that crud just keep in mind, I'm just leading up to the books and I also have another idea up my sleeve for latter. Dun Dun Dun! _

_To clarify; everything will be um. . . Kind of explained, basically Max was taken to the School by Jeb and our magical mystery German ran a scan on her chip through Ex-ray to see how she was progressing, and to explain about the body guard thing, oh you'll under stand latter in the story! Ugh. Lol. _

_I'm just weird like that. :D Thanks for all of the feed back guys you rock! So here we go. . . With the story I mean, ugh._

_Oh and don't worry, Max won't remember anything that was what the pain was, her memory being erased by the chip. So yeah. Hope that clears some junk up for ya'll! :P_

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Sixteen)))_

_**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peaks, Backwoods, The Building: 8:09 AM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

"_MAX!" _WOLF MAN! I threw the thing off of me and heard it hit the floor, weren't wolf men supposed to weigh a ton? Maybe a really light wolf man? "_Owwwww." _A little voice moaned.

Oh, wait, oops. I jerked up and looked down at the floor, there was Iggy, Gasman and Nudge, all crumpled in a big heap, all trying to talk at once. Had I knocked all of them off of me? Double oops. Oh well. I had a pounding head ache. What was wrong with me? I must have not gotten enough sleep. That had to be it.

"Max. . . Jeb won't let us go outside! He said that the thing that hurt you was out there or somthin' but we like you better! So can we play outside, please ,please. please. please!" Nudge almost screamed. I winced and then I heard Jeb run into the room. My eyes were closed, the light hurt them too. Jeb seemed really flustered, about what? I was confused. Nudge's words didn't even register in my brain for a while. I was just sitting up in the mattress on stilts and waiting for a chance to go back to sleep. The only thing going through my mind?

'_Go away. Go away. Go away. Go away. Go away. Go away. Go away. Go away. GO AWAY!'_

Then I heard as Jeb stormed into the room, obviously not happy. What was he? Was he. . Mad? Jeb. . . Mad. He was never mad. That was my job! Maybe he was frustrated, not mad, or just plain unhappy. Why did he even come into my room? When had he gotten into my room? Why was the room spinning? What was going on? Why couldn't I breathe?

I was suffocating. Something like a lump was climbing up my neck. My forehead was sweating like crazy. Oh no. Oh no. I was dieing or something worse. Had the School left something in my system. Had it been from the Gasman's chemical intake test? What if they had put stuff inside of me to kill me?!

I felt as something came over to my mattress on stilts.

Without thinking, I lashed out at it when the thing or person or whatever tried to grab me. It was going to hurt me! Or at least that was what my mind was screaming at me. Something else was screaming too. But it seemed like the other screaming was in a whole other world. Then I started to breathe as hard as I could but I was still dizzy. Darkness was leaking in through the sides of my vision.

'_Maximum. Calm. Just- Maximum. . . Maximum. Listen to me. Maxi-'_

That was the last thing I needed. Something in my head, but then the pain became even worse as the thought left my head and I didn't know what had happened a few moments before.

My own body threw itself back on the mattress and I started to jerk wildly like the first monster before I murdered it. I gasped for breath that I wasn't getting. I felt as I fell off of the bed and my wings tried to flare out to catch me as did my arms. Hitting the ground hard, I chocked on something hot and acid-like. What was acid anway? How had I learned that word? Not Jeb. Not the School. Maybe-

"Oh god. Oh dear lord." And then I heard a crackling and Jeb had shoved the other kids out of my room and locked the door. Little fists started banging on the door, yelling came from outside of the room. I heard another pair of feet, Fang with Angel in his arms most likely. Why was I thinking so calmly when I was dieing? That was something to think about when I wasn't being killed. Wait, killed. . . Or dieing? Natural. . . Or School made?

"I told them not to even try the new technology with her. I told them that it could cause and look what happens! That Ter Blotch comes around and everyone has to obey him of cores. My god, she' s bleeding internally!" Jeb was talking to himself and I had no idea what he was saying. New what? Ter who? Oh who cared!

I tried to push myself up so I could control my own body more, but I hit the hard floor a second time with an echoing, _**thunk.**_

_Maxie. Fa-ang very worried. Fang try make door gone! He no like Big Boy in dere wit Maxie. _

Angel. As I twitched, I was able to listen to her and make sense of the situation. I was on the floor, Jeb had locked the door and there was something wrong with me. But what was- Ow! I heard as Jeb tried to hold me down and talk to me. I didn't want to listen. I wanted to just lay there and think. Thinking didn't include moving. . . Did it? I had no clue what I was or where I was for a second and everything shook me so hard I flung myself onto two feet and then crashed back down to my knees a second time. I was gonna have bruises.

"Hold _still _Maximum." Jeb muttered, my eyes were still closed slightly and my head pounded twice as hard. And then, like I had missed a huge chunk of time, Jeb was on my back, pinning me down to the ground, my freaks were still pounding on the door. Then I felt something cold and wet slide over a little patch on my neck and then I felt the cool metal of a needle, I had grown used to them quickly at the School. But why was Jeb stabbing me with a freakin' needle?! I was so confused.

Then I felt even more dizzy and the pain in my head pounded even harder. It hurt so badly. I actually screamed, though Jeb put a hand over my mouth, I silently thanked him. Why? I really didn't know. . .

With a final flash of pain, my back arched off of the floor for a second and pure terror and pain mixed flowed through me and then. . .

Why was I on the floor again?

I was breathing weirdly and I felt funny, kind of like something big had had just happened and I had just missed it. I turned my head slightly and looked up at Jeb, he smiled down at me, looking flustered.

"Jeb," I began my voice muffled.

"Yes Maximum?" He asked not even moving, the pounding on the door became louder. And I clearly heard Iggy yelling over everyone else, trying to get them to calm down a little. Who knew Iggy had it in him? That was something new.

"You're smothering me." My voice was still muffled but the message was clear. I didn't like people having control over my body. It was a wing freak thing I guessed. "Ok. . . What just happened?"

The question seemed casual but on the inside I was freaking out. Why were my freaks trying to break down the door? What time was it? Could I eat yet?

"You hit your head very hard last night and it must have damaged your inner ear, causing you to become disoriented. I mean. . . You bumped your head on the wall last night while you were. . . Um. . Sleeping and it made you very very dizzy. Does that sound just about right Maximum?" Why was he asking me? I really had no clue.

"I don't know!" I huffed. But then, when I tried to get up, a wave of pain filled my whole body. A sharp gasp sent a weird feeling through my whole body. Ow ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, _ow! _But then it faded back and I didn't really feel anything, seriously. The pounding stopped as I shook my head and jumped over to the door, flinging it open so that all of my freaks who had been leaning on it, fell to the ground.

"Well, who want's to go outside?" Jeb asked happily, or, as happily as Jeb could really. I grinned at my freaks and grabbed Nudges hand, but then I remembered something really, really important.

"Wait, boo-boo check." I said sternly to the two of my freaks that had been hurt. Nudge proudly showed me how healed she was, only a scab and Fang showed the same. Then with a fake stern voice, Nudge turned on me.

"Boo-boo check!" She said, hands on hips. I grinned at her and said, wait, she didn't need to know how bad I was hurt. I was supposed to be tough. That was the only way I was going to be able to survive as their leader-ish-freak.

"I don't _have _any boo-boo's." I said skillfully, "I'm. . . I'm the invincible Maximum Ride! No one can hurt me!" I did a hero pose that I had seen a guy with red under ware on his blue tights do. He looked cool doing it! So I must have too. My little freaks giggled and Fang gave me a 'You're been getting away with way too much lately. I'm gonna hunt you down latter.' look. I never liked that look.

I was feeling kind of cocky with the whole 'Invincible Maximum Ride' thing, so as we shuffled outside I gave him a look back that I probably shouldn't have. It said:

'Bring it on!'

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_TA-DA! All done for this chappie. It feels so good to just sit and type for hours. -sigh- I know I'm addicted! I can stop any time! NOT! Lol. Jk. But I am kind of OCD when it comes to fan fic. . . Hmm. . . ANYWAY, Something way more important._

_I'm half asleep so don't blame me for the spelling errors people, I don't have a beta or anything like that so yeah. _

_This chapter was kind of confusing too, but just remember this was in 2003 so technology wasn't as advanced then, we've taken some huge leaps since then! So erasing memories would be easier now than then, it was new then and they were testing it on Max to see what would happen. _

_I hope you all liked it! _

_Siy Rowling?_


	17. The Adrenaline

_Thanks for all of your reviews guys! Love you all ;D. Last chapter was also slightly confusing but I hope my author notes explain some of the story, but I'm not gonna give everything away! So just keep reading. :D_

_This chapter picks up slightly where we left off so it's all ok, slightly less confusing. :D_

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Seventeen)))_

_**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peaks, Backwoods, The Building: 2:43 PM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

"To the right! This is an upper cut! Which means, you cut your target _up _not sideways Fang." Ducking, I heard a _**whoosh**_ing sound just above my head. Falling into a crouching position, I kicked his legs as hard as I could. He grunted and fell next to me, there was a small silence and then Jeb ran up to us. Well, more like walked. "Very nice. You both are superb at hand-to-hand combat. . . I mean, you are very good at punching each other." He reworded so we would understood. But I was starting to get the hand of his words.

Fang glared at me and then just nodded at Jeb, Fang still didn't trust Jeb like I did. I don't think he ever would. I thought for a moment, why _did _I trust Jeb so much? The day we had first met he had been just another White Coat to deal with, but now, he was like, a second in command. That was what I had heard on the TV when some guy named Shook or Spotty or Shock came on the screen. He had pointy ears and talked funny.

Every leader needed a second in command, and Jeb was mine. It just worked out that way. I was jerked from my thoughts as Fang swung his leg under my bent knees and knocked me over. So he was seriously going to bring it on? Well so was I. Still laying on the hard cold-ish ground, I grunted and pulled down on his leg, hard. He landed on top of me, giving him the advantage. Darn.

Quickly and clumsily, he pinned my arms and my legs, so I used the only weapon I had, I bit his shoulder hard like the monster I had killed first had done to my leg. Fang yelped and glared at me, then quickly, he bit my shoulder back, just as hard. For a while we went back and forth biting harder and harder until we both drew blood and I managed to kick his sorry butt off of me. We glared at each other for a long time before Jeb came back over, wide eyed and confused.

"What happened? Maximum, what attacked you?" He asked, not noticing the fact that Fang's blood was on my teeth. Well, either that or he was just ignoring it. I scowled, -When had I learned that word?!- at both of the them. I wasn't happy with either of them for some reason. Why? I still wasn't sure.

Fang was acting like the boss of me and I was the leader and Jeb. . . Well he was acting all science-y again, but it seemed less intense then before. More confused than anything.

Maybe that was it. . . We were all. . . Confused, about what we were doing and how we were supposed to be doing it and all of that crap. Maybe he was wondering if he should just take us back to the School. O maybe he was thinking about how he should make us forget about the horribleness of the School. The killing. The torturing. All of it. Either way, I would have to watch him, but didn't I trust him? Yeah.

Yeah, I had to trust him.

While Jeb rambled a little I tried to sneak a peek at Fang to see if he was ready for another attack. With a jolt, I saw him looking at me, probably thinking the same thing. Did we think the same all of the time? I thought I was nothing like Fang, he was just one of my best friends. We weren't related or anything like the girls and boys on TV they were always brothers and sisters. Then why did Jeb keep calling my freaks my siblings? What were siblings anyway? Hey was that a caterpillar?!

Something collided with my side and we both came crashing to the ground. Fang.

I growled low in my throat. He had me pinned again, for behind this time. I was getting sloppy, like Jeb called it. Gathering all of my strength in just my stomach like Jeb had said to do, I arched my back really quickly and Fang went flying a few feet. That gave me enough time to jump up and look around to see where Fang had landed.

Jeb blocked my vision of Fang for a moment, I pushed him aside with a new strength I didn't know I had. Was I stronger than Jeb?! Seriously? You had to be freaking kidding me. Like the White Coats hadn't screwed me up enough. Or maybe it was that stuff that the dude on the survival show calls adren-I-line? Yeah, that's it. Adrenaline. I glared at Jeb and whipped my head around to try and find Fang. HE was starting to tick me off.

And then out of nowhere, something crashed out of the trees on the side of the grass closest to me, I smirked as my eyes landed on Fang, who had fallen out of said tree. Ha take that Fang! I was starting to get happier and happier and I wasn't sure why. Why did I want to hurt Fang so much? Why was I so weird today? Wasn't it like every other day that we've had? Boring and safe-ish?

Somewhere in my brain I knew it was wrong to take everything out on Fang and challenge him like this, but I was doing it anyway, not even bothering to shove Jeb away as he tried to talk to me. I couldn't even hear what he was saying anymore. It was like a blur. All that mattered was that Fang knew I was the leader. That was it. I had saved his sorry freak butt back at the School and I could beat it right back there if I wanted to.

That thought made me stop. Had I really just thought that? Something so horrible shouldn't have even come out of my mind. There was something wrong with me. Very, very wrong. Stopping probably wasn't the best idea because Fang must hae thought I wasn't paying attention. Which I wasn't but how did he know? I could have been planni-

"Oof!" I grunted as Fang used the new punch Jeb had taught us, upper cut. It hurt and knocked the air out of me, when had he even gotten over here? I was confused and hurt and tired, something was wrong, I knew for sure in the back of my racing mind that something was so wrong I couldn't even find in in the fuzz that was my brain.

Rubbing my stomach, I looked at Fang straight in the eyes. He was kind of blank. Like he didn't care either way. That didn't sound too much like my best friend. But then, his leg shot out and swept my legs out from under me. Falling to the ground again, I let the little voice that had been nagging my brain ever since fight training had begun this morning take over. It was me, but it was like Fang was one of those monsters and I had to kill him or he would kill me.

So with a jump I lowered myself into a crouch like I had seen on TV and a second latter I was flying for the monster Fang thing. Blinded by anger. The last thing I saw before I made contact with Fang was his confusion. Why was he confused? I was attacking him to save myself because he was going to kill me. That simple.

But, for a second something like a flash of light blinds me, the weird part? The light was _inside _of me. Almost behind my eyes. Yeah that was it. Behind my eyes. It nade ne fall to the ground and a voice rung in my head.

'_Brand new-_

_Fool proof_

_Keep Tabs_

_Maximum_

_Liste-_

_Never out of sight_

_Safe_

_Dr. Bachelor's daughter!_

_Respect_

_Disgust_

_Maximum! Listen now-_

_Just a test._

_This isn't real, just go to-_

_Red_

_Ari_

_Sleep, just sleep Maximum. It will all be ok-_

_Mate?_

I didn't scream, though I might as well have, rolling on the ground random words flooded my mind and it hurt it was coming in so fast.

And then it was gone. Just like, _**whoosh **_and everything was fine again. I was standing completely still, directly in front of Fang who was still confused, so was I. . . What had just happened? The past minute had been almost erased from my mind. Like some of the experiment the School used to do where me and my freaks couldn't remember each other.

Jeb started over from where he had been, had it been seconds? Minutes? Hours? Probably seconds because Fang still wasn't attacking me. Wait. . . I jerked around and punched Fang square in the gut.

"I win." I whispered hoarsely as I leaned down to give him a hand.

For a moment, I thought it was finally over, but when he did grab my hand, Fang used all of his remaining strength and shoved me down to the ground, jabbing his foot into my stomach so hard I gasped and heard something crack. The look in his eyes was weird, kind of like I had done something to him, like I was a traitor.

A freaking traitor! Rolling over I held my stomach and groaned.

"Maximum! Are you alright?" Jeb called, I just groaned again, trying to get up to show it didn't hurt that bad. Surprisingly, it did hurt that bad, maybe the worst part about it was that one of my best friends had done it to me.

"Huh? What's going on?" I heard Iggy ask Nudge as the all gathered around me. Where was Fang? Why wasn't he with me? He was one of my best friends.

"Fang just hurt Max real bad and I think she can't even stand. Nope. She's down. Man hers and Fangs really hurts each others." Nudge answered, Iggy bent down and listened to Jeb's instructions on how to help me up.

When had they all circled around me? I couldn't see them, but I could hear them, I started to breathe really hard, every time I did, the bone that Fang had cracked throbbed and I winced making the crack hurt even worse. The next thing I knew, Iggy was holding me up and I was barley supporting myself. It made me feel like I wasn't the leader, leaders don't get hurt so I tried to step away and walk by myself. I only ended up back on the ground. My head was spinning.

What was real? Was I really back at the School? What happened? Where was Fang? Why was I in a grassy field with Iggy carrying me on his back? Where was Fang? What happened to Jeb? What was happening?!

I wanted to scream every time Iggy almost dropped me.

"I can carry her, you should go and help the Gasman get back to the house Iggy." I heard Jeb offer as Iggy tried to hold me up all of the way without dropping me, which I knew he shouldn't do because I weighed more than him and I was older. But I felt Iggy's hands as he shifted my weight so that it was easier for him.

"No, I got her." Was all he said before I opened my eyes. Looking around, I saw my freaks all gathered around me, worrying. About me? Where was Fang. . . And then I saw him. He had just left me on the ground. Without saying anything.

"Ig's, let me down, I can walk with help." I muttered in Iggy's ear, I felt him sigh in relief as I hobbled around and let him take half of my weight on his arm.

He had left me. Without doing anything or saying anything. And that hurt worse than him actually cracking a bone. Because it meant that I had made him really mad. I had made Fang hate me as much as I had said I hated him. Oh crap .

Turning my head, I saw him glance at me, what was I supposed to do? Glare? Smile? I didn't know.

But then, I realized exactly what I was supposed to do. I looked him in the eyes for only a second before turning back around, clearly showing him.

'Fine, if you don't care, then go die in the School for all I care.'

_**((((Chapter End)))**_

_Ok, here we go, an extra long chapter for my extra long absence. Lol. Did you know they don't have internet access in certain places in Wisconsin? I didn't, or else I wouldn't have stolen my Mom' s lap top to bring with me! Lol. :D_

_I dedicate this chapter to all of you guys who actually bothered to review! Keep reviewing guys and I'll keep writing! And if you get mad just remember, the longer I'm gone the longer the chapter is when I get back! ;) _

_I need two reviews to continue! Whoop whoop!_

_Siy Rowling?_


	18. Love

_Ok, ok, I got a lot of almost flames/comments about the fax fight. Just remember they're children and are just starting to feel emotions farther than pain, anger, jealously and maybe friendship. They aren't your normal group of kids like you and me. They are starting to get intensified feelings due to change in environment mentally and physically. _

_I've actually thought it out. . . I know shocker! -gasp- Lol. _

_But don't worry, max and Fang can't stay mad at each other for long. Well except in STWOES but that is a completely different fic and after my timeline! So here we go!_

_OH!_

_Ok here is the dedication for this chapie, . . . I dedicate this chapter to. . . -drum roll-_

_**DT2009! **_

_You're a consistent reviewer and this is my way of saying thanks. :D _

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Eighteen)))_

_**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peaks, Backwoods, The Building: 9:03 PM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

"Move your leg to the left." Jeb said in his, no-arguing-with-me tone that usually was nothing to me, but I was in an ok mood, so I moved my leg to the left, whatever that was. He looked closer at the huge gash that had reopened, he said something about stitching and I fleetingly wondered what the heck stitching was in the first place.

Looking up at the ceiling, I thought of where everyone was.

Fang was in the living room -comfy room to me but whatever- with my other freaks, even if I didn't like him, he was one of my freaks so I let him get checked by Jeb first. In the end, Jeb said I had taken a huge chunk of skin or two from him and gave him a few bruises but everything else was fine.

Then when he saw me, he got all surprised and wrote a bunch of crap on a piece of paper, even though I can't read something was wrong with the paper, the format, it looked exactly like the papers they made for the School, not like the regular lined paper Jeb gave Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge to draw on when Iggy, Fang and me were trying to fly. Jeb called it flight training. I called it freak training.

"Hey, Jeb," I began, Jeb mumbled something I couldn't hear, head bent down to see my leg. I started to get shifty and uncomfortable, maybe I shouldn't.

"Oh, yes Maximum?" Jeb asked, I cringed when he said my name, something was wrong with they way he said it seriously. I started to think of excuses. Ways to get out of my stupid idea, '_Why did I even think about that? I shouldn't even ask him it was such a stupid question.' _My mind seemed to go on and on all on its own.

But before I could stop myself, it popped out, "Um, what, I mean- could you- maybe- could you um. . . Wouldyouteachmehowtoreadmaybe?" I asked as fast as I could.

"What was that Maximum?" Jeb looked really confused as his head lazily lolled up to face me. I gulped a huge gulp and began again.

"Could you teach me how to read. . . ? Maybe if you have time or something." I mumbled and then crossed my aching arms, not making any eye contact with him. This wasn't what I usually did, Jeb offered, I agreed, I never asked. New territory. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jeb rise from my knee slowly, I turned slowly as well, and faced a grinning Jeb. Why was he grinning?! I shot him a look that always had made Iggy scarred when he could still see it. And it was hard to scare Iggy. Other than sticking a Wolf Man in his face.

"Maximum," His tone was something I had never heard before, kind of something that could only come from someone older or more smarter than you. Someone that knew what they were doing or whatever. And the tone just annoyed me, like he thought he actually liked me or something. Like he was my friend. ", Yes, Maximum, I will teach you how to read, as soon as I can. And then you can help me teach the other children."

We shared a look, a look I think meant something. I wasn't sure, you never could be sure with Jeb, his signals were fuzzier than Fang's. Fang was clear with what he wanted with just his eyes. And Jeb, he was kind of non-happy with talking to people, sometimes I didn't think he even wanted to talk to me and my freaks. But that look, it was like he was finally seeing me for the first time. Like I wasn't just some wing-kid freak. Like I was a person. A non-freak person.

"Tanks, I- I guess, maybe. Yeah. . ." I just let myself stop, what was I saying? I never stopped in the middle of something, I always knew what I wanted and how I wanted it. Like, I knew I wanted to get out of the School, and I knew I wanted it quickly, then Jeb took us away. I had known that I was mad at Fang so I wanted to hurt him and I knew that I wanted him to hate me as much as I hated him. And so I beat the crap out of him. Everything usually fell into place. What the heck was I doing then?

"It is alright Maximum, your leg is fine. Why don't you go and, do what it is you do before lights off-. . . I mean bedtime?" Jeb said it more as if it were a question than anything. I smirked at him and romped off. Hoping never to have to go through something that weird ever again.

Why had it been that weird? It was like the way I didn't care about Fang. The way that when he didn't care about me it hurt but I understood, like if I had been the crud out of Jeb. Why did it matter? Why did I need to know how I hated Fang?

Because it didn't _feel_ like hate. Hate was what I felt for the White Coats daily, and it wasn't jealousy. That was what I felt for that little kid in the lab that hung out with Jeb, they called him his son. He had a dad, and I had a bunch of freaks. Great deal. And for sure it wasn't pain, he had never really hurt me until I had hurt him first so that couldn't have been it. Then what was it?!

Something clicked in the back of my mind, something Angel had gurgled just a month or so before Jeb had busted us out from the School, something so important, but how had Angel known about it before me? I was older, I had heard people talking more. I had definitely killed more things then poor little Angel. No, it was something completely different than what I was used to. I had never actually thought about saying it, maybe once or twice with noticing it, but how had Angel known? But she could read minds and she could already talk and almost walk at a year or two, -we really didn't know- who was I to judge?

That had to be it, how had Angel known more than me? Mind reading. How much of a huge fat idiot was I for not figuring it out before? A huge one.

Taking a quick painful turn, I ran down the hall, my feet slamming into the ground hard and echoing loudly. Why was I so stupid?! Fang was going to really hate me forever and he would never know. Man, I was beyond a freak. I was a retarded freak.

Skidding down the wood floors in my socks, I jerked around wildly to find him.

"Where's Fang?" I asked quickly, everyone turned to me, they were perched somewhere in the comfy room, well everyone except Fang, where was he?! And why wasn't anyone helping me? I was confused and angry at myself this time.

"Bed, he was tored." Nudge said not even looking up from the talking screen, "Could 'jo get Jeb to, get me a big ting with you dow-" I was gone before she finished. I knew I probably should have nodded and acted like I knew what she was talking about like we always do but this was important.

All th way down two hallways, almost there, tripping over my own feet twice, I huffed and then I found it. Fangs door, it didn't have anything on it but I knew it was his because his was right next to mine and across from Iggy and Gazzy's room. Reaching for the door handle, I paused, what if he already hated me forever? But something told me to do it anyway. So With a burst I was inside of his room for the very first time. It was a normal room, kind of like mine but he had clothes that Jeb had given us scattered around some.

I saw his form on the bed that looked so much like mine except his blankets were green and mine were tan. I had woken him up? Oops. But this was very very important so it didn't matter.

He glared at me like I was a White Coat and waited for me to begin. Maybe it _was _too late. Maybe I had lost him. Maybe-

My mind talking was cut off when I really began to talk with out my brain telling my mouth. "Fang, I have to tell you, I don't hate you and I never did, it was all my fault I can't believe I was so mean to you and bit you and hurt you real bad. But I need to tell you something! Angel already told me and it was really important and now I don't know if I-"

"Spit it out!" Fang hissed, less mad in the face. Was I getting any of this across to him? Was he getting it? He _had _to get it!

"What I mean is, you know those people on TV where they all go and do things together and live in the same building and they call themselves families and yeah, well, that's what you 're to all of us and that's what I think of you and-" I shuffled over to his bed where he was just sitting up and looking really confused, almost as much as when we had left him behind right after escaping when the car took off without him. Lost. I hated feeling lost so I continued,

"I love you Fang, you're my brother and I'm so sorry." I said as quickly as I could. Saying sorry was not a Max like thing and it wasn't going to become one.

Fang was silent for a long tome just looking at me confused but then suddenly the idea seemed to flash over his whole face, he did know what I was talking about? I didn't. We looked at each other and then the next second we were doing that thing that they do on TV when everyone in the crowd goes 'awwwww'. I hugged Fang so hard I think I might have re broken my own chest.

Still hugging, Fang whispered in my ear,

"Love you too Max, love you too."

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_Ok, are we all happy now? They are bestest buddies again, horra! Yay yay yippidey yay. Ok done with that. . . _

_I hope my Auothers notes aren't getting too long, just tell me if they are, and I would love to have my most loyal reviewer back, LOVE YOU GOLDIE, and a few of my past reviewers, but all the love to the new reviewers too man! Yay, Glad to have you on board! _

_I promise to try and update more quickly again. I have no excuse so . . . Yeah. SORRY! _

_Siy Rowling?_


	19. Scared Of The Dark

_Yo peoples, waz up? I'm back and ready for writin, this may be a slightly less long chapter but I will update towmarow or the next day for sure cause its. . . . SUMMER VAYCAY! Oh yeah. Soooooo happy and spazzy can't wait to get on to some of my ideas for this story so get ready! I'd love to get a ton of reviews cause I have hit. . . Duh duh duh! Over NINETY reviews people, you guys rock with a passion! _

_Anyway, I dedicate this chappie to. . . _

_**All of you guys!**_

_I wonder if there's a username like that? Hopefully not because I meant ALL of you for being freaking awesome and supportive. Loving the super long reviews keep em coming! _

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Nineteen)))_

_**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peaks, Backwoods, The Building; 3:09 AM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

"_Ow!_" I heard someone try to quiet their yell, huh? I rolled over on my mattress on stilts and then I was falling, my wings tried to flare out to catch me, but the fabric of my shirt was in the way. With a _thump _I was on the ground rubbing my shoulder. Why did we have hard floors? Who knew. My wings were in an awkward position, where my shirt was halfway up my back and my wings were still flared out a little. Why did they always have to do that? I was getting tired of it. Maybe if I did something to the shir-

"_**Ow!**_" The same someone mumbled farther down the hallway. Well I was already up. A second latter I was opening my door and wondering why it was so dark in the first place. A second latter I forgot my question and I was just stumbling down the hallway and looking around lazily. Why was I up again?

"_**AH,**_" And just like that I was wide awake and running full speed down the hall and jerking my head around trying to find the person who had most likely just hurt themselves. It was good to have good hearing every now and then. At least better than Jeb. He never did tell us why we had better senses, but we knew, The School had pounded it into us if they couldn't give it to us. Like the way we could all sleep in any position and not be uncomfortable. That was one of things that had defiantly been pounded into us from a loooooooong time ago.

Then I saw him. A pale blob on the floor muttering something, holding his foot. I skidded to a stop next to one of my best friends. "Ig's what's wrong?" I whispered reaching out and grabbing his left foot. It was bleeding under the nil on his big toe. I winced and guessed how much that must have hurt. And not being able to see it must have been even worse. I realized quickly.

"I just wanted some water. It was so bad that I couldn't swallow my mouth was so dry. And- yeah. I couldn't tell where the kitchen was without Gazzy to help me." He barked in a whisper. Was he mad? He sounded mad. My mind was clear but not quite sharp enough to see why one of my freaks was upset. I wasn't really sure why I cared for a moment. Sleep was most important. My mind whispered. Yeah right. I rolled my eyes to clear the fog that clouded my vision, it was just one of the side effects of a test the School had planned to do on Gazzy.

"Here, you're bleeding a lot under the toe nail." I murmured, I wasn't sure what to do about that; but it was already starting to stop bleeding. "Come on, you said you wanted to get some water, I'll help. I'm hungry."

"Sure." After that, it was very quiet, just the rustle of me taking all of his weight on my shoulders and standing up, Iggy lifting his left foot so he wouldn't hurt it even more. I grunted a little when we started to move. After a second both of us fell into a pattern like during training, left hop, left forward, right, left hop, left forward, right.

Iggy didn't even look at me as we passed Jeb's bedroom door. Jeb never made any noise when he slept. Not even a _squeak. _It was weird and kind of creepy cause when you passed anybody else's door you would hear snoring or maybe even someone talking in their sleep coming from my freaks rooms, -Mostly Nudge and Angels room-. That always scared me, when Jeb wouldn't make any noises, sometimes I dreamed that he was dead and we didn't even know. I scared the crap out if me. I was pretty sure Iggy felt the same. But why was he ignoring me? He was one of my best friends that I loved like a brother.

After a while we reached the kitchen and I led Iggy over to the counter so I could get him some water with my hands free.

"Ig's, need help getting on the stool?" I asked after a second, there were stool lined up so that we could eat on a counter, -which I really didn't get really the floor was fine with all of us-. Iggy just jerked away and shuffled onto the stool. He looked ticked, not a good think when you can tell Iggy is ticked. I stared at him for a second before he glared at the space above my head.

"What?" He barked. I blinked a couple of times, how had he known I was looking at him? Could he see again?! I got more and more excited as the silent seconds passed. I jumped from side to side and Iggy's eyes followed but just slightly above my head. I let a smile slip onto my face, on the inside I was dancing around like crazy. Iggy could see! Iggy could see! But then. . . Why weren't his eyes back to normal? The great green color that reminded me of the stuff that Jeb called jealousy.

"You can see!" I almost screamed. Iggy waited for a second with a bored look on his face. I stopped hoping after a second, why wasn't he happy? He should be happier then me! He was the blind one in the fir-

"What are you talking about? I still can't see anything Max." He said dryly. I gave him the are-you-crazier-than-me-? look that I tended to give Jeb a lot when he was teaching us something. Still there was nothing in his face. Wait, if he couldn't see then how had his eyes followed me? How had he known that I wasn't moving?

"But your eyes and moving and. . . Wait. . . A second." Something stumbled into my mind and I could get it out of my mouth fast enough so I just grabbed a plastic cup that someone had forgotten to put away off of the counter and I chucked it at Iggy's head. After a second, I didn't see it happen, but then, just as it was about to thump Iggy straight in the left eye, his head jerked around and he was half way bent over in a second flat. "I knew it!"

"Knew _what; _that something was next to you, so you chucked it at my freaking head?!" He yelled. We both quieted for a second as we heard everyone upstairs quiet for a moment then go back to their snoring and talking and what ever they were doing. He glared at me blindly as I smiled so wide that my cheeks started to hurt.

"Iggy, you _can _see." I whisper / told him firmly, he looked at my area of space in disbelief. That just made me happier, I had noticed it before _him. _Ha.

"_No _I can't. If I could I would be able to see you right now and the kitchen and everything else that you can see, but I'm _blind _Max." he said slowly as if I were stupider than him. Pft yeah right. I was gonna learn to read _way _before him. Oh. . . Wait. . .He wouldn't be able to learn to read.

"_Yes, _you can, remember when I didn't move and your all 'What' and all that, and when I was jumping your eyes followed me and- and- and- oh darn it! Iggy you can hear really god ok? That's how you can see! Ugh. That stuff I do for my freaks." I mumbled. Iggy's face became confused when I said the word 'freak' he had heard me, no one else, not even one of my other freaks, would have been able to hear that. My smiled started to shrink.

Was that why Iggy had been so mad? It made sense. He hadn't been able to do anything, barley able to feel anything around him. It must have felt like the School all over again. Scared. Alone. It must have hurt a little bit too if you counted all of those 'ow' s from before. He hated not being able to see. I felt useless. Why had it taken so long for me to see? But why hadn't Iggy just told me? Fang had when he told me that he wanted to know how to fly like me and that he had been scared when the monster had attacked me. Why had Iggy kept if from me? Did he want me to guess? Or worse, did he not want anyone to know.

"Max, that's stupid, I can hear just as good as you guys." He whispered, clearing his throat, I jumped to grab a cup from the cabinet and fill it with water from the sink as I let Iggy think about what I had told him. I walked over to him a little a annoyed that he wasn't getting it but letting him off the hook cause he was one of my best friends. With a shrug to myself, I handed Iggy the water which he took, not even guessing where it was to grab it. I huffed.

"Like that." I said sharply.

"What? Like what? What did you do now?" He sounded a little panicked, setting down the cup and looking in my direction.

"And that! You do it and you don't even realize it! Ig's you have a talent and you don't even notice it." I started to get even more annoyed as Iggy thought about it for a while longer. I had even used the word I had just learned, 'talent' from that show where people sing and they get money or dollars or something like that. Well the winner does. -The person Clay Acne or something was going to win, or that's what I thought.-

"I. . . Think. . . You might have actually had a good thought." Iggy murmured. I looked at him with a mix of ticked-ness and happiness. He was finally starting to see it. And the way Iggy had been learning the stuff around him, like one day he would fall over a rug and the next day he would make sure not to trip on it again. He was remembering everything around him.

"Yeah, listen Ig's, you can tell me anything, it doesn't matter to me, even if you grow another head and start barking like a floppy eared experiment. Alright?" I asked, he looked like he was thinking about just shrugging and ignoring me but then he looked me almost in the eyes and said.

"Yeah, if I remember."

"Just know that we all love you Iggy. Even if we're mean sometimes we love you."

"Yeah? Well I like you guys a lot too Max. But I don't have to tell you everything."

Why couldn't he tell us -me and my other freaks- that he was having trouble?

The answer slid into my head immediately, he was embarrassed, like I was when I asked for help. He didn't want my other freaks and me to know he was having a problem because that just wasn't what he did. It wasn't Iggy-ish. Just like asking Jeb to teach me how to read wa-

It all happened so fast it was confusing, one second I was focusing on Iggy and all of his problems and the next I was on the floor screaming, twitching. What was wrong. It was hard to finish a sentence. What was-. How could-. Where was-. My scream echoed and that was the only sound in the whole building for a looooong time. Then I was being surrounded by things I didn't know, where they White Co-. Was I diei-. No I was in so much pai-.

I curled up in a ball on the cold floor and help my head. A shock went through y whole body, making me twitch agai-. And the I-. And something grabbed m-.

The only thing I could hear over my screams was Iggy, he was next to the thing that had grabbed me and picked me up. They all shuffled around the thing that was carrying me, even after the sound of a door opening made me jump and I almost kicked one of them. It was so cold where I was. But none of them were there with me. They were all ok. Were they my fre-. Was Iggy o-. Was I going to di-.

The last thing I heard was Iggy, but this time I under stood him.

"She's gonna be ok guys. She's gonna be ok."

_**(((Chapter End)))**_

_Ta-da! I'm back in black man! . . . Well actually fuzzy slippers and some ice but. . . Ya'll get the idea! Sorry for the lack of updateness, I have no excuse but if I get at least two reviews then I will write a 20 page chapter. My regular chapters are 4 pages. So just look at the differnce guys! I will have someone to dedicate the next chapter to but it's really early in the morning and yeah. _

_Just review and keep reading cause I have a HUGE surprise for next chappie! ;) Shout out to Goldie who hasn't reviewed in FOREVER! Ugh. Lol. But I love all of ya'll so yeah. :D_

_Siy Rowling?_


	20. Time of Death

_Ok, I LOVED all of your reviews and it's time to PARTY! Because -drum roll please-. . . _

_IT'S THE TWENTIIETH CHAPTER! Never thought this would get this far! I wouldn't have continued without the awesome support of all of my favorite reviewers. Which would be all of you by the way. Thanks for sticking by me you guys. ;D trust me this chapter will be worth it. _

_This is also a very special chapter because we hit OVER 100 REVIEWS PEOPLE! Can't believe it man :D Love all of you guys, I can't say that enough, and you guys are freaking awesome. I hope everyone knows that I'm developing the characters, they didn't just grow up like Leader Max, Silent Fang, Talented Iggy, Prankster Gazzy, Talkative Nudge and Rebellious Angel. The only reason I'm telling you all of this crap is because I got a flame, -First one- And I'm confused as to if you guys all understand why they're acting the way they are. _

_So yeah. . . I would just like to tell you Fox101, I like it when people criticize and all that crud but seriously, if your going to go through the trouble of reading all of these 'crappy' chapters then you obviously don't have a life. Pft. I mean, if you want to read a fanfic than READ A FANFIC THAT YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO READ! God. And you want me to discontinue this well too bad, I love the people that like this fic too much. By the way. . . GET A LIFE!_

_Ok, I'm better, on with the fic! Oh and before I forget, I dedicate this chapter to. . . _

_Blondie!_

_Thanks for all of the awesome and loving reviews. I should really thank all of you guys for being so freaking awesome! But I promised to actually pick someone this chapter so. . . Yeah. ;D On with the chapter! -finally- _

_Siy Rowling?_

_(((Chapter Twenty)))_

_**Longmont, Colorado, Longs Peaks, The Main Hiking Trail, The Van; 4:07 AM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

My eyes were on fire, they hurt so much that water was streaming from the back of my skull and out of my head, I started to twitch again and blood started to clog my throat. But overall it only hurt when I breathed. Jeb was yelling into something that was small and had numbers on it that glowed, it looked like a walkie-talkie from where I was laying, but I really couldn't see much of anything really. Anything that I felt other than pain was the rushing of something flowing through me and past my ears and all around in me it felt familiar, like a test at the School, I almost heard the White Coats muttering to themselves and calling me 'Subject 666' never a good feeling.

The bumps in the road only got bigger as Jeb went down and down the mountain so fast I couldn't see anything outside but a mesh of colors. Could the van really go this fast? It had never gone this fast before.

The last thing I remembered about my freaks was Iggy telling them I was going to be ok. . . But where had Fang been? Fang was supposed to be one of my best friends right? Did he just ignore my scream? Why was I twitching again?! Jeb made a rough turn that threw me against the vans door and made the blood in the back of my throat bubble into an overflow. Is this what Ear Boy felt like before I murdered him?

_**Aspen, Colorado, Gibson Avenue, A Facility; 5:43AM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

I wasn't in the van anymore, the only reason I knew that, I didn't hear Jeb whispering or the grumble of the van under me. But I did hear other people. They were all talking really loudly, and I was being pushed on something? Yeah. . . Something. Was it like that show with the Doctors; E.R.R or something like that? Where they were all running around the fake person who was sick but in the end the person usually got better. I had a horrible feeling that I wouldn't be one of the ones that went home at the end of the show.

Like it had a whole different brain a scream came plunging out of my mouth when someone tried to take me from the cart thingy I was being pushed on. . . Or maybe I was being carried? I tried to open my eyes again but the lights hurt too much, it actually _hurt _to look at the bright lights that I had grown up with? Wait. . . I had grown up with these. I was in the School. Hate. Hate was the only thing that kept my mind off of the throbbing and screaming that must have been coming from me. Jeb brought me back to the School? The _School?! _I would have liked to die more than be here.

Little words from old worried voices spilled into my head, "Chip malfunctioning. . ." was said over and over, so was, "Inevitable with new technology. . ." And the one that scared me the most was, "Subject termination. . ." Tears started to leak out of the corners of my eyes from the pain and my fists found a hand. I wasn't sure why. But I just reached out without thinking and a hand wrapped around mine and I remember it too. Jeb. He was still there, still right next to me. There was a little bit of cooling in my stomach and I realized that it hadn't been _just _hate, it was also fear. Something I would never show my freaks. The Invincible Max. Or at least that was what I told them.

I heard a _**whoosh**_ing noise that seemed to go past my ears, I kind of thought about all of the blood in my body rushing to my heart but then forgot about it. Then there was more talking and yelling and Jeb's hand got tighter and tighter around mine. What was going-. Why was Jeb-. Who was that pulling my-. Why couldn't I thin-.

The twitching started again, I couldn't finish a thought, everything was spinning even with my eyes closed. My head was had its own pulse and I couldn't feel my arms or legs anymore. Why was I being moved again? The pushy thing that I was on finally stopped but someone who wasn't Jeb grabbed me and almost threw me on a metal table. I tried to hold it back but I screamed again, the people rushing around me didn't seem to notice as they started to hook me up to random things that I had become familiar with.

They were the things that took blood out of you and put some back in, I knew from the needle they shoved into my arm. There was a beeping sound that surprised me for a second, it was just the crap that they call a Heart Monitor, I had no idea what it did but they hooked it up to us a lot.

Why was I so ok with it? With dieing? Maybe because I was a murderer. And maybe I deserved to die. I heard the people as they ran around, but I knew they were too late. There was something wrong with my brain. How could they fix that? But they had done it to me. So they should have known what was wrong. . . Right? But something deep inside of me told me they were just as confused as me.

I felt the sharpness of more metal and I felt the people around me start to get more and more worried. . . No worried wasn't the word. . . More like worried about their jobs -something new to me- than worried about me. Like if I died, they would too. It was weird because they didn't worry about in a way that they loved me like a sister or brother like Fang did, they worried about me because they were worried about themselves. Which was really not so new to me.

During my whole time at the School, I had gotten the feeling every time a test was taken on us or we were thrown around by some wolf men. The same thing like it wasn't our lives that were important but the fact that we stay alive. If that even made any sense.

There was a static-y noise somewhere in the room and then a harsh and confusing voice that I recognized from somewhere.

"Vat is happening? Vat have you done you stupid man?!" The voice screamed. I wanted to wince but I was twitching again. My whole body was out of my control and there was nothing I could really do about it at that point. I started to choke on my own spit and my eyes rolled back into my head. Was it possible to see your brain? My whole body shook and tears ran down my face as pain thrashed against my head and my stomach, but mostly in my arm.

If this is what Ear Boy went through I was so sorry. I wanted to kill myself just because I had murdered him. But that probably would be taken care of for me. My brain started to slow down. . . It hurt, like I was losing something. Something so important. It was never there. Well. . . It felt that way. I was becoming empty. Things started to disappear. Who was that man who had taken me away from the Building? Was I in a cage anymore?

A little voice screamed and soon I couldn't tell if it was me or just repeats of things I didn't have anymore. Who was that kid? The one with the dark hair? And the other ones? They were so little. . . So familiar. They were like me. But that thought was lost too. After a couple of seconds, I wasn't anyone and the pain was just rubbing against my whole body the wrong way. The only thing that was real to me was the hands and lights and cold pin pricks and sometimes even the gentle touches that I wanted to jerk away from but I couldn't.

Maybe that wasn't me. I wasn't anything. I was the pain. Yes that was it. I was the pain the hurt people like that thing. She was on a metal table and she was screaming. Horrible people were trying to make the pain better, but I just wouldn't stop. Maybe, being pain, I couldn't stop. I couldn't just give up I made the girl hurt so badly. But why did she have to scream so loudly? I was pain and I didn't have to care but for some reason I did.

A buzzing noise filled my ears. One long low buzzing noise. The line on the screen went flat next to the girl. My job was done. For a second something mashed with my thoughts uncomfortably, what was happening to me? I was being pulled from somewhere. A force was sucking me, no, _tearing _me away from something, something I really waned to stay with.

But I was pain, I wasn't good, I wanted to stay near something. . . Done. Yes, that thing laying there was done. It had hair and eyes and wings. It was small and pale. What was that thing? The thing I had been hurting? I was good at hurting. The thing that I hated. Why did I hate it so much? And if I hated it so much why did I want to stay with it.

My thoughts started to get slower and slower. Why was pain stopping? I didn't stop. The thing I hated should be _dead_. With a new anger, I pulled myself away from the sucking power that wanted me away from the thing I hated. And then I was back inside. Inside hurt. Inside was fading. Like a light going out. I wasn't happy. It needed to be alive! Alive. So pain could do it's job. So I could do my job.

"_." _The noise pounded against my confused head.

"Chest compressions! Get Anne!" Someone yelled over the loud unchanging beep. Who was Anne? Why did I care, I was going to die. But pain didn't die. I _was _pain after all. Then I was pulled back into my own brain. The one that knew I was about to die. That I was never going to see my freaks again. That I was never going to teach Fang and Iggy how to fly and Nudge was never going to learn when to be quiet. I had so much to do. So much.

With a loud wet sound I started to do that thing Jeb called coughing or something. Jeb. That traitor! I had to tell my freaks! They had to know to run away, I had to help them! What if a monster attacked them like it attacked me?! What if. What if. What _if! _I had to live. I would not die. I decided. I would not. . . Die. Cold hands hit my chest over and over again, something was covering my mouth it was pushing something funny tasting into my belly.

"I've got thirty voltage." Someone yelled over the roar in my ears.

"And hit it with a voltage in three, two, one!" And then the pain I once was never seemed to stop.

Something tingly hit me hard in the chest, a picture of Fang flew past my inside eyes.

It hit me twice, a picture of Iggy this time.

It hit me three times, I started to get all fuzzy again, but there it was that stupid little picture my inside eye showed me, Angel and Gasman.

Then it hit me for the last time and there was Nudge with her big puffy lips, huge eyes and funny looking ears that seemed too big for her tiny head.

Finally I heard it again, the long sighing, _"." _It didn't scream this time, it was more like a good bye. Like it was my last friend saying so-long. I didn't like it very much.

"It's gone." Someone said over me. The cold hands had stopped hitting me so hard. The thing over my mouth was taken off. My prickly brain started to get dark. I started to become the pain again. Slipping. . . . . . Slipping.

Then I was gone.

_**Aspen, Colorado, Gibson Avenue, Holiday Inn; 6:32AM 2003**_

_Experiment Log, Day seventy-three _

_Ex. X- 7 666 fell into another one of it's attacks early this morning at approximately 0-400 hours. I rushed it to the nearest facility as quickly as possible and was left out in the hallway. Anne Walker was called around, 0-500 hours and arrived just in time to announce Ex. X- 7 666's time of death. I have no idea what I'm to tell the other Experiments. Ex. X-7 667 will most likely fall into old patterns and become useless much like Ex. X-5 404 did shortly after his third assignment. There's not much to be said for the rest of them, Ex. X-7 671 did show great promise during it's testing, but being only a few years of age, I highly doubt there will be anything soon. So it seems the attempt to surgically implant a cyber link into a subjects bio frame was unsuccessful. Shut-down of this program will mostly likely be swift and hard to my career seeing as the experiments have had a taste of the outside world. Procedures will continue on the X-7's, at the least in a week. This will be my second attempt to rebuild my failured career. _

_Itex will surely miss the prospect the genetically altered avian hybrids had brought up, but this program seems to be falling through the cracks yet again. After my first big breakthrough with Ar- Ex. X-5 404, the field has widened tremendously for genetic science. But maybe mother was right and I should have gone into the family tailoring business. Going back home will be a relief though, I must say. Seeing Valencia will be an uncomfortable treat. The mountain air was beginning to get to my head a bit. Though it is a time to celebrate I __was__ looking forward to teaching Maximum how to read. _

_~ Jebidiah Bachelor _

* * *

"_I'm not supposed to be here." I yelled and screamed and kicked at the nice hands that tried to make me stop. I knew they weren't the White Coats. What was a White Coat again? I wasn't sure. Where was I? What was I? _

_My mind hurt real bad all I wanted to do was sleep forever. But there were the hands and my throat wouldn't stop hurting. Maybe that was because I had been screaming for what seemed like a long, long time. Maybe longer than it really had been. But either way there was a voice now. Loud and it rang all around in my ears and head and even my bones. _

_I could tell this was it, this was the moment I was either gonna be gone forever or I would see the Freaks again. Wait. . . My Freaks. _

"_I'm going back!" I yelled. There was complete silence, the nice hands were all gone and my eyes were shut tight. I was dead but I felt so alive. _

"_Yes." Was all that was said, and then the nice hands from before were picking me up and pushing me down. Far far down until I was falling. Falling. Falling. Falling. Then. _. .

'_**Swoosh!'**_

* * *

_**Aspen, Colorado, Gibson Avenue, A Facility; 3:32 PM, 2003**_

_**(Maximum P.O.V)**_

Black. Black. Black. Black. All around black. All black everything. I couldn't breathe. My chest hurt. I was cold. My fingers where sticky. Something was making my toe hurt like it was wrapped in the sheet too tightly. My hair was in my face, choking me. My eyes popped open and it was still all black. Something was wrong. Feeling around, I realized there was that stuff called plastic completely around me.

I kinda remembered a face, a big familiar face with glasses. Then I was gone for real. Floating in that in-between place. There was a blank spot, then I 'membered my Freaks. I remembered how I had to get back to them. And then I was there in the black plastic choking.

Before I knew it, I wasn't allowed to breathe anymore. Pushing. Pushing. Pushing. I wasn't gonna die again. Not this time. All I had to do was get out of the plastic. Why was it so dark? Soon, I was ripping at it, feeling all dizzy, there was no more air in the bag. When it ripped open, I tried to shoot up to stand, but I hit my head so hard on cold metal that I almost went back to sleep forever. But thinking 'bout my Freaks had me wanting out of here more than anything. Wiggling around wildly like the Monster thing did, the ground under me started to shake.

No not shake, I saw with my freak eyes that light was coming out of the place where my feet were. '_A way out!' _A little voice yelled in my brain. Then I was throwing my whole body at my feet until something '_snap'-_ed and I was thrown from the cold hard metal ground to the I cold hard real ground. Looking up into the pale face of someone I didn't know. He looked like he was sleeping. . . 'Cept he wasn't breathing. . . I crawled backwards and hit a big shelf. . . He was dead.

Looking around, everything around me was pale and not breathing. . . Only one thought came to me then, '_I wonder what their dreams are.'_

_(((Chapter End)))_

_So. . . Uh, yeah, that's it. Please don't kill me for being so late. I have no excuse! __J Just review! I need one review to continue, (though I'll secretly hope for more) and my hiatus is officially over! :D So yeah. . . Review! And remember to celebrate to twenty chapters of With A Flourish! _


End file.
